Monsters Are Made
by DONOVAN94
Summary: She was born into a body never meant to be, with clashing impulses she didn't understand. She tasted affection and family only once before it was taken away from her and she was sealed into a world of isolation and loneliness. Betrayed. Abandoned. Lied to. Imprisoned. Hope festered into rage, innocence into insanity. She had been born a killer, but they turned her into a monster.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note: Hello everyone! So, after I saw Jurassic World last saturday, my head couldn't stop buzzing with it! It is such a fantastic film, I absolutely loved it. One thing that surprised me was that the Indominus Rex was actually a rather sympathetic villain - at first. The way they explain her is so heart wrenching when you think about it, that I just had to come up with a back-story for her!**

 **So I hope you enjoy this story, and please do no forget to review! Thank you!**

* * *

Monsters Are Made

* * *

Everything was too tight, too dark. Liquid choked the throat, the nose, with a foul taste on the tongue. Limbs felt too cramped, creating a panic in the frantic little heart bursting to be free. Body wiggling, limbs straining, needing to find a way out, the encasement was suffocating her, she needed to be out – _needed to be out!_

There was a loud crack, deafening to the ears, but the definite sound of weakness. Instincts – so many different voices in the head and heart, conflicting, making too much noise to understand – knew this was the way out, and the arm struck again. There was another crack, and a little light peeked through, blinding, painful, but desperately needed. Pushing out the arm again, she tried to smash her way through her prison. When finally it happened, she felt so weak that the hand had to hang in the open air, twitching violently. The imprisoned one felt as if she would die, her heart was still straining too much as the panic and fear of bursting free was still consuming her. But the liquid that was drowning her was slowly leaking through the crack and by her limp hand. Not willing to be defeated, a rage coming over her at the thought that she might die before tasting glorious freedom, her limbs gathered strength for one last attempt.

Thrashing her body, her head rang as it smashed against the side of the prison, but it was enough, and the encasing fell away.

Air streamed into the prison, and she opened her shocked mouth to take in a sudden rush of air. Light blinded her, causing her to shut her eyes in response, with a hiss of pain. She sat there for a moment, breathing air into relieved lungs, eyes slowly adjusting to the light to look out onto a white world beyond. The eye looked about curiously, studying the world that slowly came into focus, eye craning around looking for something, mind turning and working. It seemed like an eternity later, when the limbs had enough strength again to fight out of the rest of the prison and tumble into the world.

Ungainly long limbs fell onto a hard and unforgiving surface, so cold it stung raw, pebbly skin. Long tail slapped to the ground loudly, and she struggled to get her large feet underneath her. Her arms were a little help, they felt strong, with large hands and long claws that scratched the ground loudly as she pushed. The last pieces of shell fell from her white hide, and half opening her eyes, she seemed to know that her prison had been the _egg_ , and that she was not simply a being, but she was a _hatchling._

She struggled to her feet, body exhausted, limbs shaking. There were so many different voices in her head, all whispering things to her that she didn't understand, some clashing and contradicting each other until she didn't know which to listen to, confusing her. Some voices whispered that she shouldn't move one way, others saying that she wasn't moving enough the other way. The voices tried to tell her what to do, but she couldn't understand yet, she didn't know how.

"Look at you, so strong already." Came a voice from above. "Come on, you can do it… stand up…"

The hatchling hissed, alarm and a need to defend herself in her vulnerable state bringing strength to her limbs as she brought herself awkwardly onto two feet, front body hanging low until her knuckles almost brushed the ground. She spun around looking for the voice, until she found a blurry image standing above her. It was a tall entity, almost like a world all its own, seemingly infinitely larger than the hatchling. As the image came into focus, she saw that this thing was tall, flat faced with pale flesh and a gold-brown crest on its head, with large brown eyes. Its scent was a strong and rich smell that left a nice and sweet taste on the tongue, and the hatchling peered at the image, eyes narrowing as she tried to understand what it was.

The voices were usually conflicting and confusing, but upon seeing this living being that stooped over her and crooned to her with seemingly no hostility, the voices all seemed to agree for once. And instantly, the hatchling knew who this being was.

 _Mother_.

Upon realisation, the voices provided urges and wants that the hatchling knew Mother would provide. She suddenly realised what _hunger_ was, as her stomach gnawed at the core of her body, and she chirped to Mother loudly, leaning back on her gangly back legs as she reached up, yearning for the food Mother provided.

"Shh… shh…" Mother whispered in a warm and sweet voice that filled the hatchling with utter adoration as she desperately engraved the sound of that voice into her memory and heart, so that she might never forget it. "Hush now. I know what you want…"

As if from nowhere, Mother produced in her fore-claws a red mass that she held out to the hatchling. The hatchling sniffed at it experimentally, large golden eyes peering and blinking as she studied it. Her tongue flickered out to taste it, and a sensation exploded across her tongue, awakening the hunger into a ferocious storm, the voices all screaming in her head: _DEVOUR!_ Her jaws snapped onto the meat – for the voices said that was what it was – and she greedily guzzled it down, barely chewing as she hastily swallowed it down her thick neck. When it was done, she chirped at Mother excitedly for more. Mother rumbled, but it was not a growl or a sign of aggression, instead it sounded amused.

"Learning fast already?" Lips on Mother's flat face turned upwards to bare her teeth, but the hatchling sensed no aggression still.

Mother then reached out a fore-claw, and the hatchling shied a little at first, fearing a reprimand for something she hadn't known she'd done. But then, Mother's soft skin made contact with hers. At first the touch was burning, for Mother felt so hot, but then, the soft caress rubbed along her side and back, and the touch felt soothing and filled with love. After the initial shock, the hatchling purred as she rubbed her side against Mother's hand, nuzzling Mother back as her soft fore-claw came up her neck, tickling her spines. The hatchling took in a deeper inhale of Mother's scent, and nuzzled against her, wanting to memorise every aspect of Mother so that she would know her instantly by sight, smell, ear or even touch. Mother was infinitely gentle, yet her touch was so wonderful, the hatchling felt her arms wrapping around the fore-claw as nuzzled her jaws against Mother's flesh.

"You're so sweet…" Mother crooned happily, and the hatchling purred in response. "My sweet Little White…"

The hatchling felt her heart lift with elation. Mother had named her, she had an identity. She was _Little White._

"Eat well and you'll grow up fast and strong," Mother said as she carefully pulled her fore-claw away, much to Little White's disappointment. But then, Mother held another piece of meat in her fore-claws out, and the hatchling squeaked excitedly as she snapped it up.

But her second feast was interrupted, when she heard a knocking and shrill squeaking. Little White froze, body tense, her attention turning to a large object in the area of her hatching that she hadn't even noticed before. It was as tall as she was and curved all the way around, but there was a black line zig-zagging across it, and the hatchling could hear faint tapping sounds and slight squeaks coming from inside. Little White stalked closer cautiously, feet carefully placed apart and ready to spring as she sniffed the air experimentally. She tentatively came closer, large eyes blinking as she tilted her head to better inspect –

There was a loud crack, and Little White squeaked as she leapt back out of the way just in time, as a grey shape came tumbling out of the second egg and fell to the ground with a loud _splat_. Little White stood gawking at the mass on the floor that slowly moved its limbs as consciousness came back to it as its large eyes blinked open. Upon seeing reflections of her own eyes, Little White realised that she was looking at a second offspring. The voices inside her instantly became at war again, some whispering that this was a sibling and was therefore called _pack_ , but other voices whispered that this was a _rival_ , a _threat_. The voices were so at war, that Little White stepped back, trying to make sense of what she should do as the grey form slowly stood on wobbly legs. The confusion and intrusion of her space made Little White snarl with anger, she didn't like the grey shape, it was too close, it wasn't right.

Her sibling was different from her, as it was grey in colour whereas she was white, and its eyes were browner in colour where hers were gold. But it was also very much the same like her: the same bulky body and big feet but thin and uncoordinated legs. The grey one staggered slightly, and Little White hissed at the sudden movement. Decided that this was a threat, she splayed her claws, jaws widening as she gave a tiny and pathetic roar at her opponent. The grey one repeated her move, probably having come to the same conclusion as Little White. Not wanting to be caught unprepared, Little White made the first move.

She leapt at her sibling, claws and teeth digging into flesh as the two went tumbling across the cold and hard surface where their eggs had been laid. The Grey squealed as Little White tried to rip it open, big feet and large claws struck at Little White's side but she didn't care. Grey managed to push her, but they both went rolling again, until the ground ended and they fell off of the edge of the world.

They both screamed as they fell, but a hot presence suddenly encased them, and Little White instantly recognised the feel of Mother's soft flesh as she held one of them in each of her fore-claws. She slowly brought them back upwards, and Little White realised that their hatching-nest must have been on a raised surface, the voices whispered that perhaps it was because to keep them away from predators. Looking over at the Grey, Little White saw that it was looking up at Mother, eyes wide and shifting as it obviously came to the same conclusion that Little White had about the large presence that now carefully held them. Grey realised that this was Mother, and Little White felt a bitter sting in her stomach as she glared at her sibling, and later realised that the feeling was _jealousy_.

Mother placed them back onto the hatching-nest, but she didn't release them, instead she pinned them both to the cold and hard ground. The Grey squawked in outrage, but Little White tried to plead with Mother, tried to ask for forgiveness in a tiny squeak. Mother's eyes were narrowed, and she stared at each of them in turn.

"You will not fight." She said in a hard voice that was so different from the soft and loving murmurs from before, that Little White shrank back as far as she could in Mother's hold. Mother continued to speak, and although Little White didn't understand all of the words, she understood the meaning. "You will play nicely."

Mother then released them, and Little White remained where she was, but couldn't help but glare at the Grey balefully. Grey however, was not paying attention to her, instead craning on its back legs as it squeaked expectedly at Mother. Mother lost her hard edge from a moment ago, and gave that amused rumble once more, before handing Grey a piece of meat. Little White wanted to march over and claim the spoils of the meat, to fight the Grey tooth and claw if she had to, but didn't want another reprimand from Mother, and so returned to her fallen piece of meat and ate it sulkily.

Mother continued to feed them both until they were so full, that both hatchlings yawned loudly, tongued rolling as their full bellies lulled them into sleep. Little White heard the voices quiet down inside her head, and wobbled closer to Mother, wanting her warmth for sleep. But then, Mother gently picked Little White up in one hand, her fore-claw gently cupping her beneath the belly and lifting her. Little White blinked in surprise and slight panic as her back legs wiggled for the feel of solid ground beneath her, but she relaxed in Mother's hold once more when Mother tucked her close to her chest. The Grey was in Mother's other hand, and Little White couldn't resist a secret little hiss at her nest mate, which the Grey returned.

Mother took them out of the bright white hatching-nest and through a series of long square tunnels until she came to a wider and dimmer lit area. The heat was wonderful, and Little White felt all the sleepier as she felt her body be warmed by the very air around her. She couldn't make out the shapes that filled the room that she would later identify as _the nursery_ , but Mother took her and Grey to the edge of the room, on the side opposite of the entrance, and settled down on the floor. Mother placed Little White and Grey on her lap, and Little White instantly kicked at her sibling with a snarl as she fought for the best place to sleep on Mother. Grey hissed in protest as Little White clung to the loose second skin of Mother and began to climb it towards Mother's chest. But Little White swatted her sibling about the face with her tail harshly, spines on the back of her neck standing on end in a show of dominance. The voices in her head whispered that she must kill her rival, or show it its place in the pecking-order. Seeing as Mother had admonished her last time for trying to kill the Grey, Little White decided to go with the later voice, and so only displayed her dominance as she asserted herself. Grey wanted to fight back, Little White could tell, but the younger of the two had been beaten, and accepted it – for now.

With a snort of satisfaction, Little White continued her climb until she was at Mother's chest, when Mother automatically curled one arm around Little White to support the climbing hatchling. Little White settled herself until she was comfortable and nuzzled herself closer to Mother's chest. Mother radiated heat, and there was a reason that her chest was the best spot, as Little White could press her head close and hear Mother's soothing, calming heartbeat. Below her, Grey was curled on Mother's lap, and Mother placed her free fore-claw on Grey's back which soothed the beaten hatchling.

Little White purred and chipped, large golden eyes looking up at Mother with complete adoration as she chirped happily. Mother rumbled in happiness again, the sound seemingly loud and booming where Little White's head was pressed against her chest, but also comforting at the same time, for it made Little White feel safe to know that mother was so massive to protect her, yet gentle enough to love her.

"My sweet Little White," Mother whispered softly. "Already you act more intelligently then others would give you credit for." Little White didn't understand what Mother meant, but simply took comfort in her voice. "I know you're going to impress the world someday… both of you… my hatchlings."

And then, Mother began to produce a sound, a sound that was low and humming in Little White's ear. It rumbled through her, yet filled her heart with such emotion she could not describe it. It took Little White a moment to listen to the voices which told her that it was a _song_. Mother was _singing_ to her, softly, quietly, but still singing. Little White felt her heart yearn and beat for Mother's, the song trying them together with bonds of love that the hatchling could not even begin to understand fully. The song slowly lulled Little White into sleep, as the hatchling yawned, before curling up and closing her large golden eyes, drifting away to the sound of Mother's sweet song.

* * *

Little White awoke a few hours later to find herself in a cold, metal container. It was more spacious then the egg had been, but it was no taller than she was, her spines scraping the top. Her heart instantly began to pound in panic as she leapt to her feet and began to cry out for Mother. She noticed that this container was a square shape, and was perhaps two lengths of her both ways. She went to the edges, peeking through holes in the container as she cried out for Mother over and over. Her noise caused a sound behind her, and Little White turned to see her hated sibling stirring from its slumber across the container from her.

Upon waking, the Grey seemed to realise also that they were absent from Mother, leaping to its feet and calling out for Mother as well. But then, the Grey noticed Little White, and the two rivals glared and growled at each other. The space was too confining for both of them, and Little White felt her claws twitch as the voices in her head kept whispering for her to kill the threat. Grey too seemed ready for battle, as the two circled each other, though the cramped space of the container afforded them little room to move. Little White snapped at the air around her sibling's head, and Grey returned a few snaps, though Little White quickly slapped her sibling's head away with her claws.

Both were ready to tear at each other, but also both remembered Mother's reprimand for fighting, and so settled for viciously guarding their own separate corners of the container. Little White didn't sleep easy for the rest of the night, constantly keeping one golden eye on the Grey. Every now and then, one or both of them would intermittently give out a loud cry as they called for Mother, but the hours ticked by and she didn't come.

Little White heard the voices in her head whisper that dawn had risen somewhere, but in the container, it was always the same, so Little White couldn't truly tell. She whined and whimpered for Mother, continuing to call out for her, but it wasn't until despair began to sink in that something finally happened.

There was a _whooshing_ noise, and Little White felt her skin and spines prickle at the ever-so-slight change in air pressure, her nostrils twitching at the new scents that danced into the room. One was familiar. Little White was instantly on her feet and chirping loudly, her head banging against the ceiling of the container as she worked up a racket. The Grey joined her, but she didn't care, only focused on calling out to Mother.

"They've been like this since two o'clock this morning." Came a deep voice that did not belong to Mother. "They haven't stopped," Little White felt her spines bristle with aggression, teeth bared to hiss at the sound of this new voice. The voices whispered it to be a threat, and she readily agreed.

"Didn't you check to make sure they were alright?!" Mother's voice demanded, and Little White felt relieved to hear Mother's voice which soothed her insides tremendously.

"That's above my paygrade," The other voice drawled.

"Then get out before I give you something that's _above your paygrade_." Mother growled, and Little White would have girdled in approval as she heard the other presence step back in leave, a second _whooshing_ noise could be heard before the air stilled again.

Little White and the Grey went completely still as they heard a loud _clank_ before the ceiling of the container folded upwards and light was allowed to meet them. The hatchlings blinked in surprise as they hissed at the sudden brightness, but then a shadow engulfed them, and they saw Mother standing over them.

Little White wasted no time, and instantly leapt at Mother, the Grey following soon after. Mother staggered backwards as they clung to her chest, their claws finding easy purchase on her second skins. Mother's arms wrapped around them, before she knelt to the floor and slowly pried them off. Little White would not be dissuaded however, and tried to climb back onto Mother's lap to snuggle closer to her, chittering for reassurance.

"Good god, what's gotten into you two?" Mother's voice said softly, and Little White revelled in the chance to hear it. She tried to get back onto Mother's lap, but Mother kept pushing her back. "Okay, it's okay!" Mother said, keeping her warm and loving touch on Little White's neck and back to placate the hatchling. "Jeez, if I had known leaving you would do this, I would've staid. Alright now, don't you want some breakfast?"

Mother then held out some strips of meat, and both hatchlings guzzled them down greedily, keeping well away from each other as they ate. The food was an easy distraction and both hatchlings were placated by the nourishment. For now.

* * *

Mother didn't leave them again.

She left only for little amounts of time when both hatchlings were awake, to where Little White supposed that she went to hunt, for she always returned with meat. Sometimes she was gone longer than others, and came back in a new set of second skins and smelling fresher and of water. But Little White could always tell, because of Mother's scent and Mother's voice.

Over those next few days, the two hatchlings would always expand their knowledge of their nursery. Sniffing out ever scent, playing with the various objects – which usually involved finding out which way was best to destroy said object – or sometimes finding good hiding places to ambush the other. Little White made it her mission to try and oust her sibling, and would often find places for a good ambush in the shadows where she would be hidden from all eyes, her scales would shift in colour and she would escape all notice. She would wait until Mother's back was turned or she had left to go for food, before Little White would spring her trap and tackle her sibling. But usually Mother would notice the Grey's pathetic squawks for help and break up their little scuffle. Always Little White would whine and whimper for Mother's forgiveness before nestling closer.

They were only three days out of the egg when they had their first intruders in the nursery.

Little White was curled on Mother's lap as Mother used a finger to scratch behind the hatchling's ear-holes. The Grey was busy pulling at one of Mother's second skins, a small string of it having come loose which it was trying to wrestle off with little success as the string kept getting longer the more the Grey pulled. Mother was humming and speaking nonsense to them, though Little White didn't mind because it meant that she could hear Mother's voice that much longer. But then, a part of the wall of the nursery – what Mother called the _door_ – opened and in stepped three tall two-legged creatures, with flat faces, just like Mother. But Little White noticed that these three had the distinct scent of _male_ about them, and their stance and posture were clear signs of aggression. The Grey instantly ducked behind Mother's back and out of sight, but Little White bared her teeth and hissed at the intruders, her spines rattling dangerously.

One of than men came and snatched the Grey from behind Mother, the other snatching Little White around the middle. Both hatchlings hissed and snarled as they writhed in their captor's grasp, screaming for Mother's help. Both were bigger than they had been at their hatching, and were more of a struggle for the men to hold. But both hatchlings were pinned to the floor as the third man came to them with various tools and instruments. He had a long string-like contraption, where he put one end on Little White's nose and let it trail down her spine until it reached the tip of her tail. Then he took out a large metal instrument and seemed to measure Little White's forearms and hind legs. Little White then squealed in protest as the man put his fingers on her snout and forcibly pulled her jaws apart, before running his fingers along the edges of her teeth.

"Is there not an easier way to do this?" Mother demanded worriedly, and Little White struggled all the harder at the sound of Mother's voice. The third man moved away from Little White and began to do the same procedures to the Grey sibling.

"Short of knocking them unconscious and shipping them to Doctor Wu in restraints, no." Said the third man doing the procedures and Little White took an instant dislike to his nasal-like voice; not rich and smooth like Mother's. "Do you want that?"

"God, no." Mother murmured softly.

The third man then came back to Little White, this time with a long cylindrical instrument in his hand. There was a small beeping coming from it, along with a flickering blue light. Little White watched the light until she could no longer turn her head the right way to see it, as the man held it over her back. The man holding her shifted his position slightly, hands moving ever so slightly as Little White felt something cold hover over her skin. Suddenly, something pushed and stabbed and tore at her back and Little White screamed in pain as she felt something being _forced_ into her body. The voices inside her mind screamed all at once as she whipped about in confusion and panic, blind impulses taking over her as she tried to make sense of what was going on.

"Is that really necessary?!" Mother demanded angrily.

"Tracking implant." The third man said bluntly, and Little White snarled at him as he passed her and did the same to the Grey, who screamed the same as Little White did. "Standard procedure; every newly-hatched animal on the island is fitted with one."

"You don't have to do _that_ to them!" Mother shouted angrily, and Little White wanted to see the moment when Mother would tear into these strange men.

"They'll be fine. They won't feel a thing in a few hours." The third man said as he got up.

Little White was still struggling in rage as the pain from the implant on her back fuelled her desire for retribution and blood. She felt her captor shift his hands again over her, and her cunning mind ceased the opportunity to strike. She used her fore-claws to slash and tear at the hands that held her, causing her captor to cry out in pain and withdraw one hand, though the other one redouble its crushing force.

"Why you little–!" The man hissed as he suddenly produced a stick-like object, though Little White felt it hum with something that screamed to her senses _danger_!

"No! Don't you dare–!" Mother shouted, and Little White saw her lunge, but too late.

The man drove the stick towards Little White's side, and she heard it scream and crackle as blue-white light sparked at the end of it. At the last moment, she threw her weight to the side, catching her captor off balance, before she bit at the middle of the stick, and consequently her captor's fingers. The man screamed, and Little White tasted blood in her mouth and was spurred on by the man's cries of distress. She was giddy on his pain and fear, it made her want to roar playfully and bite him again just to hear him scream. But the man's pack-mates came running to his distress, releasing the Grey, who attacked and savaged the man's legs with tooth and claw. Both men seemed to reach for other weapons at their sides, but Mother rushed forward to stop them.

"No!" Mother roared loudly. Instantly, Little White and the Grey released their prey and came running for her. The Grey hid behind Mother's legs, whilst Little White leapt up into Mother's arm and snuggled against her chest. The pair of hatchlings hissed menacingly from behind the protection of their mother.

The three men looked uneasily and somewhat angrily between the three, but Mother stood her ground unrelentingly, and the three eventually backed off and left the nursery. As soon as they were gone, Mother sighed, relaxing and crooned to the hatchlings as she scratched Little White under the chin.

"I'm sorry…" Mother said softly as her warm touch caressed Little White's neck and back lovingly. "I didn't want them to hurt you, either of you…" She added as she looked down at the Grey at her feet as she sat back down on the floor. Little White felt Mother turn her, finger touching the sore area around the implant, and the hatchling snarled and snapped her jaws at the pain. "Oooh, don't worry, it will be alright." Mother crooned to them, scratching at Little White soothingly. "You're a clever little one, aren't you? My clever little white..."

* * *

The next day, Mother had a few objects that made both Hatchlings instantly curious. Mother gave them each a little something that had a bright and strong smell to it, and when they snapped one up each, that taste was instantly divine. Little White and the Grey eagerly chittered for more, but Mother didn't give them any. Instead, she took another of the treats and placed into a circular shape, like an egg but see-through with slits in its side that allowed the scent of the treat to tease the hatchlings. Mother placed it on the floor and rolled it away with a hard push. Both hatchlings leapt to run after it, Little White feeling the voices all agree that the ball moved and was tasty, and therefore counted as: _prey_.

Both hatchlings raced after it, Little White knocking the ball with her snout and tail as she tried to smash it, but it simply bounced away from her blows and skidded across the floor faster. The Grey tried to get the tactical higher ground as it leapt onto Mother's sleeping shelf before pouncing onto the ball. Talons and claws and teeth tried to find purchase on the ball but it bounced the Grey off, knocking the wind from its lungs as it rolled across the floor. Little White ran past her fallen sibling with a disdainful snort.

Little White managed to corner the ball as it hit the wall of the nursery, her mind instantly trying to work out how to get to the tasty treat within. She knew it bounced away if struck from one side, so what would happen if she hit from both sides? Using her long arms and claws, she struck out at the ball, preventing it from going anywhere as it was trapped and helpless beneath her claws. Following curiosity and her fondness for destroying things, Little White lifted a talon high into the air and struck it down onto the ball, her talon piercing through its shell as pieces cracked and fell away. As she tried to pull her talon back, the ball came with her, still attached, and she smashed it back down with a snarl of irritation as she tried to get it off.

More cracks appeared on the ball, but her talon was free. Little White bared her fangs in excitement, tail lashing as she realised she had already won, because she was clever enough to figure it out. Nipping the edge of the crack between her teeth, Little White lifted the ball into the air and smashed it down onto the ground. She felt the sharp edges cut into her scales and skin, but she also felt the cracks on the ball grow as she felt the structure shudder like breaking bone. With another mighty smash, Little White shattered the ball into pieces as her prize fell to the ground with a clatter.

A blur of grey blotted out her vision for a moment, and Little White roared in outrage as she launched herself at the thief. She and the Grey went hurtling and tumbling across the floor, the treat was dropped in the process, but Little White still needed to make a point. This was _her kill, her right, HERS._ And no one, least of all the Grey, would take it from her. She pinned the Grey to the floor, and arched her neck above the sibling as her spines rattled and she revealed her fangs with a furious snarl. The Grey snarled back up at her, and both were prepared to rip into each other's –

"Alright! That's enough!" Came Mother's stern voice, and before Little White could react, she was being picked up off of the Grey and placed away from her sibling. The Grey was also stood up, and then, Mother's fore-claws flashed as she took hold of the soft flesh of their necks and squeezed and twisted sharply. Both hatchling squealed at the instant flash of pain, but then Mother's touch was gone. The pain had only lasted a fraction of a second, but the act of discipline was still well understood. Little White looked up to see Mother looming over them. "There will be no fighting!" She ordered, and both Hatchlings lowered their heads, knowing the one higher than them in the pecking order had issued a command. "Now Grey, Little White won the treat, it hers. You want it, then next time you figure it out faster." Mother then turned to look at Little White. "You're not as graceful as my Rex, but you're more of an improviser."

And with that, Mother picked up the fallen treat and tossed it to Little White. The hatchling snatched it out of the air and greedily chomped it down before licking her jaws to savour the flavour. The Grey glared at Little White with a vengeful hatred, and Little White afforded a low hiss, before flicking her tail and cocking her head in smug triumph. Nothing was more delightful then seeing the Grey lose.

* * *

A few more days passed, and the hatchlings could no longer be considered _hatchlings_ any more. They grew fast, as Little White noticed as every day she could stand taller alongside Mother on her hind legs. She was now just above Mother's knee height, and she was the taller and bulkier of the two siblings.

But the growth also came with something that Little White didn't know would accompany her for her whole life: pain. As she grew quickly, her limbs and bones ached with pain that made her moan pathetically and squirm to try and find new comfortable positions to sleep in at night. Her jaws hurt as they grew and pushed in new teeth that overcrowded her still strong baby-teeth. Her eyes strained as her skull quickly grew so that her eyes were not so large. Her feet were slowly growing sore from her constantly changing weight, causing her to hold herself differently with each passing day.

Little White's temper had also suffered due to her constant pain and irritation. She would snap and growl at the Grey on a regular basis, who would return each of her challenges. Both of them knew the reckoning was coming between them, eventually, but for now they loved Mother too much to ever risk her displeasure. Little White began to realise that there was much more to the world then just the nursery, and as she heard footsteps passing by their den all the time, she realised that there was more outside. She tried to find ways out, from clawing at the door edge to trying to find holes in the walls that she could escape through. Each time she thought she found something, she would use all of her cunning to try and figure it out, but it came up fruitless. With each failure, she would become more frustrated and agitated.

The only comforts came from Mother's soft caresses and sweet songs.

Mother no longer fed them strips of meat over those next few days, instead she would give them hunks still attached to bones. The hatchlings ate it greedily, often snatching from Mother's hands before rushing off to their own little corners in order to eat in peace. Little White loved crunching on the bones, for it helped to relieve the slight ache in her teeth and jaws, and the splintering bones helped to cut her gums when new teeth were trying to break through.

But, it was on one fateful day, that everything went wrong.

Mother came back into the nursery, holding two hunks of meat from the bones that protruded from them. She smiled and called to her hatchlings, who eagerly came racing towards her, chirping loudly as they stood taller on their back legs as they tried to reach for their prize. Mother laughed the laugh that Little White loved, a sound that made the hatchling happy because it meant Mother was pleased and loved them. Mother tossed the meat onto the floor, and the hatchlings dove for their trophies.

The sweet taste of the meat and the coppery tang of the blood was delicious as Little White savoured every morsel of her dinner. Holding the meat in place with a foot, she used her long claws on her arms to rip the meat to shreds before she sank her fangs and ripped the shredded meat from the rest of the piece of carcass. She slowly chewed and swallowed, licking her lips and teeth for any last remaining traces of flavour before doing the whole process again. She was so occupied with her meal, that she didn't notice that the Grey had already gobbled down and finished its meal.

Little White was only aware when her leg that pinned her meal jerked as the Grey pulled the meat towards it. Little White snarled at her rival, arching her back and rattling her spines as she dug her fore-claws into the meat, holding it back from her sibling as she growled loudly. The Grey didn't back down, only further hissing as it tried to make itself dominant and steal Little White's food. Little White lunged, but her teeth snapped just short in a warning. However, the Grey wasn't bluffing.

With an angry and frustrated snort, the Grey lunged for Little White, sinking its teeth into her forearm, causing her to yowl with pain before she sank her teeth into the back of the Grey's neck, as the fool had left that area exposed. Both hatchlings struggled, trying to see which one would give in first as they tried to pull and savage each other. But Little White had the position of being able to use her free arm as she tried to slash at her sibling's side with her long serrated claws.

"Hey, enough!" Came Mother's shout followed by her clomping steps as she rushed towards them.

Normally, the hatchlings would take that moment to disengage, but neither wanted to release first, and held on as they continued to struggle. Little White felt pain in her arm, but only increased the pressure on the Grey's neck, feeling the vertebrae at risk under her strength, and she relished in the power of the feeling.

"I said _Enough!_ " Mother shouted as she reached them and pulled them apart.

Little White didn't know what happened, for one moment Mother's wonderful touch was pulling them apart, but the Grey seemed to be so lost in the heat of battle that as Mother's hand pulled it away, the hatchling turned on her. Suddenly the Grey had turned and sank its fangs into Mother's fore-arm, teeth tearing and long claws ripping down her flesh. Crimson sprayed into the air, and a shrill and deafening sound erupted, it pierced Little White's ears painfully and tore at her heart as she realised that Mother was _screaming_.

Desperately, Mother used her free arm to perform the wrenching-pinch that caused the Grey to screech in pain for an instant, and seemed to break it from its spell of bloodlust as it leapt back in shock and looked about with wide eyes. Mother instantly retracted her fore-arm, cradling it against her chest, even as crimson drops dribbled down her arm and patted gently to the floor as she retreated from them. The Grey chirped, eyes confused and the frustrated at the scent of blood and distress in the air.

Little White felt the same. The scent of blood made her talons twitch in anticipation for food, and the spice of fear made her automatically take a dominating pose. Mother had never been afraid before, and never _because_ of them. Yet despite this, Little White felt confused, and wanted to croon for Mother seemed hurt, as she scooted back from them, her brown eyes watching the two hatchlings carefully. Little White dared to take a step closer, calling softly for Mother, though Mother didn't move. The hatchling took another step, and then another careful step. Mother still didn't move, and Little White whined as she brought her head lower to the ground, trying to block out the tempting scent of blood. Little White came so close that she was able to nudge the fingers of Mother's unharmed fore-arm. It was only then, that Mother lifted the hand and gently caressed Little White's neck that had the hatchling purring.

The Grey then slowly made its way forward, tail and head close to the floor as it slowly inched forward towards Mother. When it came within a foot, Little White turned and snarled at the sibling viciously. But Mother hushed her before slowly reaching out with her uninjured arm. Mother only hesitated for the slightest second before her fingers touched the Grey soothingly, but Little White still saw it.

"It's alright…" Mother whispered softly to the Grey, who whimpered and nuzzled her hand for forgiveness. "I know you didn't mean it…"

But then, the door to the nursery burst open, and chaos erupted.

Men in black-clad and bulky second skins rushed into the room, three going for each hatchling as they tried to pin them down to the floor. Little White barely had time to hiss and lunge at her attacker that was trying to rip her from Mother's side. Her attacker flinched back which allowed Little White the opportunity to duck behind Mother. The Grey was closest to the men and was first to suffer as the three men pinned it and quickly snapped bands onto the Grey's wrists and ankles. The Grey squealed helplessly, trying to bite its captors, squawking for Mother's help as it was bundled into a metal container and the door sealed. The Grey bumped and crashed into the sides of the container in an effort to escape but it did little good.

"What are you doing?!" Mother demanded angrily as she got to her feet, still cradling her injured limb to her chest. Little White ducked behind Mother's legs, wrapping her claws around Mother's shins like an anchor as she peeked her head out to hiss at the intruders.

"Animals are to be placed in containment." One man said bluntly.

"On who's orders?!" Mother snarled furiously.

"Mine." Came another voice, one that sounded female, but not like Mother's voice. The men parted and a two-legged, flat-faced female with a red crest on her head and white second-skins stepped forward with loud _clicks_ from her pointed feet.

"Claire…" Mother breathed as if in uncertainty, and Little White shifted uncomfortably behind Mother. "Please, tell me this isn't happening,"

"I'm sorry Joanne, these animals need to be placed into their own environment now, for both human safety and theirs." This new woman – whom Mother called _Claire_ – said in a tone of voice that suggested she was not sorry. Even if Little White didn't understand the other words, she knew the first two.

" _What?!_ Why?"

"Look at your arm, Joanne, we just watched the whole thing in the control room – that thing _savaged_ your arm." Claire spoke nonchalantly.

"It was an accident!" Mother pleaded. "I made a stupid mistake, it was my fault, but Grey's been punished –"

"You think a little pinch is punishment?" Claire raised one of those lines of hair above her eyes.

"Simple dominance tactic," Mother murmured quietly. "You nip their neck to chastise them. Dogs and wolves do it with their pups."

"Yes, well… a simply _chastising_ is not going to cut it." Claire spoke coldly as she motioned in another man who came towards Mother with a large box. "He'll clean you up as soon as we're done here."

"To hell he will!" Mother hissed, and Little White copied as she hissed savagely at the new man. Mother then glared at Claire. "You cannot do this! You hired me –"

"I hired you to be the Indominus' caretaker whilst they were infants – until they were large enough to go into their enclosure. And you've done that." Claire cut in crisply. "Now they're not babies anymore, and they need to be taken away for the safety of everyone involved."

"No – please!" Mother went back to begging. "You can't! It's too soon, they're still so little –"

"I agree, it would have been better to wait until they were more independent. But you knew that with their accelerated growth they would be taken from you sooner rather than later." Claire responded in that same cold and crisp manner that it made Little White believe she had been melded from a rock, for nothing was as emotionless as this woman.

"Claire, they did nothing wrong," Mother whimpered softly, and Little White was surprised to see clear liquid leaking from Mother's eyes. Had the Grey hurt her worse then they'd thought? "I'm begging you: don't take them from me – _please_! They need me!"

"They're _animals_ , Joanne, not children." Claire hissed disapprovingly. "I would have thought you were used to this – didn't you say goodbye to your little Rex?"

Mother flinched at the words.

"Gather the assets," Claire ordered the men surrounding them. "They'll be taken to their paddock in the restricted section of the island until they're fully grown."

"No! Wait–!" Mother tried to stop them but the Men ignored her. Little White hissed and growled a warning at the approaching threat, claws tightening their hold. But she overestimated her hold, and her talons dug into Mother's flesh, causing blood to seep to the surface of the scratches. Mother yelped in slight pain, flinching away from Little White automatically. The hatchling looked up apologetically, chirping softly as she reached up for Mother, who instantly tried to gather her hatchling in her arms –

Hands suddenly grabbed Little White and hauled her backwards. She thrashed, roaring and screeching in rage as she thrashed and writhed. But so many pairs of hands came to help restrain her that for a moment she felt as if she would be crushed by all of the weight. She then heard loud snaps, and felt her wrists and ankles were bound together to stop her moving and she was then shut into the dark.

Little White screamed.

* * *

She was kept in the constricting and confining dark for hours. She couldn't move, she couldn't see, and she could sense things happening outside of the container that was beyond her control and it frustrated her. The longer she went without moving, the more she wanted to, and the more she was denied the more desperate she grew. Her attempts to wriggle free, to work it out, became frantic thrashings that hurt her body until she was bloodied and bruised. The choked out growls of frustration soon became screams of panic as she continued to fight through the pain and the dark. She suddenly hated the confinement, the walls pressed around her, the dark was too suffocating, and it made the panic almost unbearable.

When she was finally released from the dark and the bindings were taken off, she all but bolted for cover. Voices in her head whispered that she had to find safety, and the underbrush was the perfect thing to hide her. She hid beneath roots and ferns, finding so realm of safety as she squatted with her forelegs low and her hands pressed into the earth as her talons raked the soil. Her tail was tucked close against her, and she trembled violently as she tried to calm herself from everything she had endured. She was shivering so badly that her breathing was laboured, and her heart was frantically trying to right itself.

Fear and pain was the only thing she knew, and she had to simply sit there and wait as she slowly calmed. Had she known that what she had thought was safety from the dark was just a larger prison, she would never have been so eager to escape.

Eventually, after what felt like hours, Little White slowly came out from her hiding place, and cautiously began to look around. She was in dense brush and thick vegetation as trees loomed around and above her, but Little White also saw the thick and dark stone walls that surrounded her just behind the trees. Making her way towards one of the stone walls, Little White felt its cold and rough hide against the tip of a talon, a great contrast to the soft and smooth walls of the nursery. Little White chittered softly, as if not wanting to draw attention to herself as she continued to wander through this new environment. Her curiosity, as well as the voices in her head, told her that she had to know every inch of her new surroundings, she had to know the reach of her _territory_. It didn't take her long to have paced around the entire perimeter walls and to inspect every log and tree and stone in between. She studied the blue sky, the light of the sun, and then the metal and wires that hung from wall to wall. Little White regarded it with an uncertain hiss, not trusting any of it as she crept back into the safety of cover to hide herself.

Little White then began to pace and search about the paddock, chirping and calling loudly as she bobbed her head, leaning back on her hind legs to make herself taller as she continued to search. She called out continuously for Mother, voices in her head all whispering that Mother would find her to protect and provide for her. She went to the walls and chirped up to the top, but nothing answered her, she then went through the jungles and tried to find Mother there; perhaps Mother was already here and looking for her but they'd missed each other? Little White continued on.

Hours went by, and daylight faded to the dark of night. Little White still continued to search, her calls growing louder, more desperate, more frightened as she tried in vain to find her Mother. Little White felt fear grow into a cold ball in her stomach, for she had not been a night without Mother since the first night when she had awoken in the container with the Grey. She called and she called, all but screaming as she crashed through the undergrowth frantically, but no one answered her, and no one came to her.

Where was Mother? Could she hear her? Why wasn't she answering? Was she trying to fight her way through all the men to get to Little White? Was she trying to find her but didn't know where she was? All these questions only fed Little White, and only added to her despair as the hatchling all but collapsed in the dirt and cried out miserably with whimpers and soft snorts and calls in a last attempt to try and call for her mother. The sky was dark and lifeless, and the night was cold and unforgiving, Little White had never felt so alone. She didn't want to move and just curled into a ball where she lay, tucking her tail beneath her chin as she desperately tried to hold some of her warmth, though she shivered and whimpered throughout the night.

But Mother never came. Mother never found her. And over the course of the night, Little White, although she couldn't possibly understand the reason, seemed to know that the Men had taken her from her Mother, ripped her from her arms and taken her somewhere beyond Mother's reach. This simple knowledge was enough to make the hatchling howl with grief as she realised her new prison.

Little White didn't sleep well that night, for she had none of Mother's warmth or comforting arms to hold her, nor Mother's songs to lull her into peaceful sleep. But when she did manage to fall into fitful slumber, she was awoken with the morning when she suddenly heard a loud commotion above her.

Looking up as she was startled awake, Little White's eyes narrowed on the wires and pieces of metal above as she slowly saw something being lowered into the paddock. Curiosity overwhelming her, she staggered to her feet and followed the lowering line to where it was coming down into the paddock. As she got closer, her nostrils twitched at the scent of blood, and her mouth instantly salivated as she realised that it had been a while since her last meal.

When she reached a sort of clearing, she waited patiently, tail flicking to the side as she watched a huge slab of meat being lowered to the ground. As soon as it was within biting range, Little White leapt up to it, sinking her jaws into the meat and hanging there before she was lowered to the ground by the metal wire, which then dropped the meat with a loud _thud_. Little White began to dig into the feast, teeth and claws tearing into the flesh as she took out all her frustration and misery on the carcass at her mercy.

However, she had only gotten a few mouthfuls, when she heard the underbrush crashing around her, and she looked up sharply as an intruder came onto her kill.

The Grey stumbled out of the ferns, looking about in confusion and panic, before its eyes fell upon the carcass, nose twitching with the scent of blood. It moved towards the carcass, knowing that that at least meant something good. Its eyes even fell on Little White for a moment, but didn't take notice of her, apparently even she was considered to be favourable to this unknown place.

But Little White didn't agree. As she watched the Grey saunter up to the meat, she felt undeniable hatred, the likes of which she had never known before, steadily engulf her, until it was all she could comprehend. She didn't know how she could know, but she knew without a doubt that all of this was the Grey's fault. The Grey had turned on Mother, injured her, and as soon as it had, the Men had come and taken them away and put them in this place and Mother was nowhere to be found. All of this was the Grey's fault and she had no one else to blame, and so she centred on the one thing she could possibly understand: _Vengeance!_

With a scream of rage, Little White leapt into the air, claws and talons splayed as she sailed through the air straight for the Grey. The Grey's eyes widened in surprise, having not expected this reaction. True fear seemed to enter its eyes as it squawked in panic and tried to duck and roll and scramble out of the way. But it was too slow. Little White landed on its back and they both went tumbling and rolling across the jungle floor.

Little White was up first, and she didn't give her hated enemy a chance to get back up. This was no game, this was no contest of wills or sly taunt to one another. This was murder, and Little White relished it with furious intent. She dove for the Grey's neck, using a back leg to pin its arms to its sides so that it couldn't slash her as she went for its throat. The jugular and windpipe bulged under the pressure, and Little White heard the Grey choke as it tried to shake her off and be able to breath. Its back legs and tail thrashed to try and give it momentum to push her off, but Little White had always been the stronger of the two, and she exerted such strength now as she shrugged off her sibling's attempts for escape.

Deciding that a simple choke was not enough, Little White took sick pleasure in the pained moans of her sibling as she shifted her position slightly before twisting and turning her head slowly to the side. The Grey cried out in pain as its neck was forced to turn at an odd angle, and its struggles increased as it knew what was happening. But Little White slowly increased the pressure inch by slow agonising inch. The Grey's cries became desperate, terrified as it tried to fight her off in vain. Little White held eye contact with the Grey as she saw its fear, relished in it, and even watched with infinite pleasure as when she wrenched her head to the side, she heard a loud _snap_ , and the Grey went limp, and the life faded from its eyes. Little White dropped the body in disgust, and waited for a reprimand from Mother, but nothing came, yet another reminder of how alone she was.

But her vengeance was not complete. Roaring at the body of the Grey, Little White used her claws on her hands to slice open the belly of the Grey before poking her white nose into the hole. By batting her head, she shattered the ribcage and dug deeper until she found the heart and liver, the two best pieces of the carcass, before pulling her head out and swallowing both whole. She then tore and shredded the carcass with tooth and claw and talon, only choosing to swallow a slice or two here and there as she went, but her main goal was to soak the ground with the blood of her sibling, to coat the ferns and stain the bark on the trees. She made the carcass completely unrecognisable, even to herself, as she even went as far as to swallow the two eyes of the Grey. She scattered the bones and made sure there was nothing left of her sibling.

She did not feel even a shred of regret for it as she walked away.

* * *

Days seemed to pass in a blur for Little White in the time that followed. Each day came: the sun would rise, she would pace the enclosure, food would be given, the sun would set, she would pace, she would sleep and it all began again. Each day shuffling by like the day before, where nothing changed for her at all. The routine of it all frustrated and bored her, and she took to pacing back and forth along the walls, but it only added to her agitation which made her grind her teeth in ever growing anger. She had no mental stimulation, she felt as if her cunning mind was going to waste with the dull routine that was presented to her day in and day out. She could recite the entire paddock from memory but her mind was constantly looking for something for her to interact with, a puzzle for her to solve. But the only thing that she could do, was plot her escape.

Food was given to her through slots, sometimes live animals which she enjoyed killing, but she always remembered where they brought her food. She came to the conclusion, that if Mother was trying to find her, then perhaps she could go and find _her_. So she learned where and when the food would come, and she waited for the perfect moment and struck. Most of the time she was too big, as she was growing faster every day, and other times the humans on the other side just managed to get the slots closed. One time she managed to sink her teeth into one of the feeder's arms, she'd almost ripped it off before they'd managed to kick her head back through the slot. They would then try and give her food through another slot, but she always learned fast and simply adapted the tactic to the different place. After three attempts of her trying to escape through the food slots, they stopped altogether. Then she was only ever given food through the use of the metal wire lowering food into her pen, which she learned the humans called a _crane_.

As the days turned into weeks, Little White began to grow and grow more and more, until she could no longer be considered _little_ by anyone's standards. The ground would shake when she walked, and trees cracked and split at her passing. And as she continued to grow, the growing pains always came with it, always causing her slow agony as bones and muscles complained at her until her body felt sore and she didn't want to move ever again. The voices whispered of the unnatural way she grew, even she knew that she was meant to grow slowly, adjust, but it was just constant pain as she was forced to grow more and more and _more_ in too little amount of time. Within a matter of months, she had seasoned into a sexually mature female, and the new hormones in her body did nothing to improve her ever darkening mood.

As she grew, the paddock seemed to become smaller, and she felt too confined by it, her old fear of tight spaces returning to haunt her, as she paced up and down by the walls of her cage, desperate to find _some way_ out! With her adult body came urges, the need to run, hunt, expand her territory, find a mate. All of which she seemed to know she could not have, and so therefore dismissed the possibility with the same growing bitterness that seemed to constantly reside within her.

But what was worse than the boredom and frustration, what was worse than even the confinement in such a tight space, was worse than it all was one thing that ate at her very heart and soul: loneliness.

She didn't necessarily want to interact with others, exactly, but she longed for just a little contact with _any_ living creature. Not even her prey was alive anymore, but slabs of meat which she ate to fight off boredom and starvation. The humans that she knew were around did not show themselves to her, instead leaving her in this isolation until she couldn't even know what another creature looked like. The only time she ever saw another creature was when she saw humans behind the glass that overlooked her enclosure, most often that _hated woman!_

Upon seeing the woman who had taken her from her mother for the first time, Little White had been just tall enough to reach the glass, and had hit it with all her might, but it only cracks and didn't feel as if it would shatter. She didn't try to break the glass again. She remembered by heart where all the strengths and weaknesses of her enclosure lay, she remembered them all and she never struck the same place twice. Once was usually enough to tell her whether it was strong or weak. The glass had been strong – but only just.

Loneliness grew into bitterness as she began to resent every living creature she saw, who could escape this confinement, could taste freedom, could interact with _anything_ and yet took it all for granted. She hated them all because she was stuck in the same enclosure, doing the same things day after day, her mind rotting away with boredom and insanity, and there was nothing she could do but _wait_! A long time ago, she had given up any hope of help coming for her, she seemed to know that she had been abandoned, and that only added to her ever growing pool of festering rage. Betrayed, abandoned, lied to, her entire existence was simply an endless cycle of imprisonment! Mother all but handed her here as far as she could tell, and that only added to the hurt in her heart, which twisted the insanity that had grown in her mind.

 _Mother_ was a lie!

 _Hope_ was a lie!

She was no longer _Little White_. That one had died long ago. She could hear the humans behind the glass that observed her. They didn't think she could, but she did. They called her _Indominus,_ they called her _monster._ Then that is what she would be. She was now Indominus. And she planned to show them all exactly what they had created, what they had turned her into.

She had been born a killer.

But _they_ had made the monster.


	2. Chapter 2

"So what's this thing made of?" Owen Grady asked as he walked up to the floor-to-ceiling panels of extra-strong safety-glass that overlooked the luscious jungle habitat in the enclosure. Immediately he noticed that he could see all the corners of the tops of the walls without difficulty… meaning it was a small paddock for an animal that should have seven times the space for its size.

"The base genome is a T-Rex. The rest is… classified." Claire said as she brushed her hair away from her face, but Owen saw her slight unease.

"You made a new dinosaur, but you don't even know what it is?" Owen asked with a sceptical look.

"The lab delivers us finished assets, and we show them to the public." Claire waved a hand dismissively before quickly turning to the plump security guard sitting at the desk of computers and screens. "Can we drop a steer please?"

The overweight security guard licked his fingers clean of powder from his doughnuts and quickly pressed a few buttons. Owen looked up at the sound of wiring machinery as a crane dropped the side of a cow into the enclosure, hanging it there like bait on a hook.

"How long has the animal been in here?" Owen asked as he raked his eyes over the trees, looking for the animal.

Claire only paused momentarily before answering. "All its life."

"It's never seen anything outside of these walls?" Owen asked, though he knew just from the pause that Claire had just told him a little lie.

"We can't exactly walk it." She gave him a deadpan look.

"And you feed it with _that_?" Owen nodded to the crane still hanging its temptation into the paddock. He continued to look, wondering if this _Indominus_ was shy, because he knew that Blue and his girls would have been all over that carcass in a heartbeat if they had been presented with the same offer.

"Is there a problem?" Claire gave him a dirty look that ordered for him to spit it out if there was.

"Animals raised in isolation aren't always the most functional." He murmured, his gaze beginning to get worried as he thought about said complications. When he'd been in the Navy, he'd worked with dog-teams and dog-trainers. One, an old German Shepard, his handler had died in combat six months previous, and the animal had turned on anyone who tried to approach. The dog had been kept in isolation after that, for months without any form of contact, until Owen was called in. Owen had tried to explain the problem, but it had been too late by then. The moment the dog was let out it attacked the nearest person until it was eventually put down. The dog had been driven insane from the trauma of losing its handler and then forced into isolation and bad treatment. Owen had raged at the officers responsible and even given one a broken nose.

"Your raptors are born in captivity." Claire's voice brought him from his thoughts.

"With siblings. They learn social skills." He said as he turned to walk back towards her. "And I imprint on them when they're born. There's trust. The only positive relationship this animal has is with that crane. At least she knows that means food."

"There… was a handler…" Claire said slowly, edgily, as if it was not a subject she liked talking about. Owen looked at her expectantly, for he didn't like to be kept waiting with important news. "We assign all new assets a caretaker when they hatch in order to help them through infancy. Not only to care for them, but to give them a better relationship with humans."

"So what happened?" He pressed.

"There was… an incident." Claire became even more edgy. "The animals had to be taken from her. It was a shock as our observations up to that point had exceeded expectations."

"So who was this mystery woman, and why isn't she here?"

"Professor Teerly." Claire said crisply. "She –"

"Wait!" Owen said quickly, something sparking in his head in recognition of the name. "What's her name? Joe… Joan…"

"Joanne?" Claire offered with a confused furrow of her perfectly arched brows.

"That's it!" Owen clicked his fingers with a triumphant smirk.

"Do you know her?" Claire narrowed her eyes.

"Me? No. Not personally." He shrugged. "I read several of her papers on predator behaviour though. And… she went on a date with my co-worker, Barry, a few weeks back." His grimace was sign enough that said date had not gone well, despite Owen's best wingman skills before hand.

"Anyway," The red-head said briskly. "She is not authorised to enter the restricted zone. We felt that she was too personally involved in the project in order to make any rational judgments."

"You took the animal from the person it imprinted on and dumped it, alone, into this pit." The disapproval in Owen's voice was very clear. "It wouldn't surprise me if she's now bat-shit-crazy. Loneliness can do that to someone."

"So she needs a friend?" Claire rolled her eyes. "We should schedule play dates? That sort of thing?"

"Probably not a good idea…" Owen murmured, his eyes still focused on the trees, which had still yet to move as the meat was still left untouched.

"Where is it?" Claire muttered under her breath.

"Is it in the basement?" Owen couldn't help but crack a joke, even when his heart was thudding against his chest, a sense of dread slowly growing on him. "Is there a downstairs? Maybe it's in the rec room."

"It was just here, we were just here." Claire muttered as she began to march towards the security guard, tapping furiously on a control panel. But Owen wasn't paying attention, his eyes were too busy focused on something out of the far window.

"Oh shit…" He whispered.

"It doesn't make any sense…" The guard said between chewing his next doughnut, as the thermal scans on the screens declared loudly that it couldn't find any heat-signatures on any section of the enclosure. "These doors haven't been opened in weeks."

"Were those claw marks always there?" Owen asked out loud, interrupting Claire's inner rant as he caused both people in the room to look at where he was pointing. Out of the window, up the concrete wall, the entire wall was scratched with white lines.

"You think it…" Claire breathed out in mounting horror as she realised the gravity of the situation. "Oh God…"

And then she was spinning on her heel and marching towards the door.

"She has an implant in her back, I can track it from the control room!" She shouted over her shoulder at him as she raced out of the door and was gone. Owen looked back at the pale security guard, pretty sure his own face had gone a slight shade whiter.

* * *

 _She_ watched from the shadows of the trees, her body perfectly still, her heart beat slow, her breathing shallow and silent, and her temperature low through force of will. Her prey was within sight, drawn into the perfect position as she had planned.

The marks she had made on the wall had drawn the humans out, as she knew it would. What she had learned from her life-time in this prison was that humans were rather inventive creatures, but if you forced them into a situation that was beyond their illusion of 'control', then they became very predictable. They had the same fight or flight instincts like any other creature, and it made _her_ blood boil that the humans thought themselves to be above the natural order.

Well, she was about to give them a very abrupt awakening.

"That wall is forty feet high, do you really think she climbed out?" Said the fat one as she eyed his sweaty back. She despised this one: the fat, lazy creature who stared at her day after day in the room-behind-the-glass overlooking her enclosure. He'd always looked at her in a bored fashion, never taking pity on her when her mind would slip into illusions of hope that made her cry out for someone who would never come.

She was angry a lot recently. She'd been angry for so long that she couldn't even remember when it had started. It had festered and ate at her mind with the boredom. But there were times when her mind fogged and shifted realities to where she would be a frightened, shivering, whimpering wreck. But these lapses never lasted long, and her cries turned to snarls of rage in moments. Confusion always distracted her thoughts before the anger took over again.

"It depends…" Murmured the stranger as he looked upwards at the top of the wall. He was new, as _she_ had never seen him before, and his scent was different… as if he himself was different from the others. The only other one that had stepped into her trap was one of the workers, and _she_ felt slight disappointment and frustration that the hated-white-clad-woman had not stepped into the trap with them. Oh how _she_ would have loved to have the chance to rip that human apart!

"On what?" The fat man asked.

"What kind of dinosaur they cooked up in that lab…" The Stranger muttered.

In the cover of the bushes, _She_ felt a slight tingle as that foreign object inside her body did something. She gritted her crooked teeth and shifted slightly in annoyance, reminded of the thing inside her that wasn't meant to be there, the memory of pain making her anger spike inside her mind. But she must have made a noise for the Stranger looked sharply over his shoulder at the trees, and _she_ stilled herself.

" _Paddock 11! Paddock 11, do you copy?!"_ Came the crackle of the little talking box the fat-one had.

"Yeah, what's the problem?" The pig-man droned into the box.

" _It's in the cage! It's in there with you!"_ Said a shrill voice.

"GO!" The Stranger yelled as they made a race towards the small door across the enclosure.

Realising that the game was over, _She_ easily stepped out of her cover and planted herself directly in the middle of the path blocking her prey from the only safe exit. The fat one, as she had predicted, went straight for the easily available escape: the big door.

Chasing after her prey with a vicious snarl, in only three large steps she snatched up the worker, and so lost in the thrill of the chase, she paused a moment in order to rip him apart. A great sense of satisfaction was felt within her when she heard his bones being pulled and snapped apart easily under her strength. The taste of her first human kill lay upon her tongue, but she didn't savour it. She charged after the Stranger, who's scent seemed familiar but she couldn't place it. The large doors were starting to close, and realising her opportunity was quickly fading, she put on another burst of speed.

Managing to wedge her neck and shoulder between the huge doors before they could close, she thrashed about as a sense of panic began to flood her veins. The sense of entrapment awoke long buried memories of the confining dark that terrified her, and she roared as she used her claws and strength to tear her way free. She heard the squeal of metal and cog as the machine that was forcing the door to try to shut broke, and the door relaxed its pressure. She stumbled as she wrenched the door open, panting as she regained her senses and looked about.

Hard silver stones blanketed the ground of the immediate area where the loud human-carrier-machines sat lifeless and waiting to be driven. A wall of trees and shadows lay ahead, what the voices in her head whispered was safe, was natural, unlike the prison that had she just broken free from. But casting her eyes to the ground, she could not see her two targets.

Sniffing the air, she knew however that they were close, and seeing as how the trees were too far away in order for the humans to get to before she noticed, it stood to reason that they were hidden in their vehicles. They thought she would be fooled that because the machines had not roared to life that meant they were not here. She curled her lip in irritation at the humans' arrogance.

She could hear the voice of the fat-one, whimpering and crying and desperately trying to smother both sounds and failing. She rumbled in sadistic excitement. Walking purposefully slowly, she came around the vehicle on her left, before seeing the fat man sat against the front of the machine, pathetically moaning as the scent of fear came off of his sweaty-stench in waves. _She_ allowed herself to bask in his fear. How many times had human kind made her feel weak, little, afraid; had shown her no remorse; had torn apart everything she was without any decency? It was time that she returned the favour.

Batting aside the machine with her arm as if it were an insignificant fly, she watched the man cry out in fear and sit straight, keeping himself as still as he possibly could. The vehicle smashed onto the ground, but she paid it no mind as she leaned her fearsome head closer to her prey, letting her rotting breath wash down his neck as she let loose an unsettling hiss. His tremors made her claws twitch with excitement. The fat-man looked over towards the other vehicle pleadingly, before her jaws clamped around him and crushed him. In three bites he was gone and slipping down her gullet. He tasted as foul as he smelled, but she forced the food to remain in her stomach out of mere principle then the need for sustenance.

And then her eyes had fallen onto remaining vehicle. The fat-one had looked there, and it was the only other hiding place left for the Stranger.

As she walked up to it, she noticed straight away that there was no one inside the machine, so she bent low, her hand supporting her on the floor as she leaned down close to the ground. She let the unnerving rattle of breath between her teeth escape her, attempting to spook her prey out. When nothing happened, she took in a long sniff to try and see if he was underneath, as her eye could not reach. Attempting to find that smell that she thought should be familiar, she was only met with a sharp scent that stung her nostrils. Snorting, she deemed the prey to be lost, but it mattered not to her.

Straightening up, she quickly walked into the blissful shadows of the trees and the freedom and vengeance they promised.

* * *

Joanne watched as the Tyrannosaurus Rex walked along below her, her head held high, arms tucked against her sides, her stride calm and slow, as if she had all the time in the world, as if the world would wait for her before it would continue to spin. Nothing looked more regal, and more majestic then the golden-green hide over the rippling muscles that strode the earth. Such power in every step, the power the likes of which could make grown men feel as small as ants, could humble the highest of royalty. It made Joanne's breath shiver in her throat as her heart fluttered in excited awe. Nothing in existence could compare with the Queen of Nublar herself.

It was difficult to believe that this creature was getting on in age. As far as Joanne was aware of, the fossil record stated that T-Rex's lived perhaps thirty years, but Jurassic World's T-Rex – who had been affectionately named "Rexy" by the staff and visitors – was close to forty. But one couldn't tell even if they tried, for the Queen never once gave a faltering misstep or even a slight sag from heavy limbs on her old frame. She held herself with the same strength she did in her younger days. And her eyes… her eyes glowed with a brilliant golden fire that pierced and burned the soul of any who dared to match her stare.

The fluttering of the human's heart turned to apprehension as the gigantic predator loomed ever closer. Though Joanne was in a sheltered spot on a tree-branch thirty feet in the air, it still made her instinctively uneasy to have the Tyrannosaurus come closer and closer. She thought herself hidden from view, and she kept herself perfectly still to avoid detection. But as the Rex passed underneath her, the golden gaze flickered up to her briefly. Joanne felt her blood freeze in her veins, and she held her breath. But with a snort the Rex looked away and carried on into the forest, completely unbothered by the human as she gave a dismissive shake of her head. It made Joanne feel as small as an ant to realise that the dinosaur considered her unworthy of its time as it carried on its way.

Only when the ground-shaking footsteps faded did Joanne let out a shaky breath, a smile beaming across her face in relieved elation. She sat there trying to calm her racing heart, the grin still plastered on her face, for perhaps several minutes, before reaching for the radio on her hip.

"Okay Lowery," She murmured softly. "I'm done here for today. Send the boys to pick me up."

As she secured herself to her climbing harness and shimmied down the tree, Joanne couldn't help but think on the fantastic dinosaur she had just observed.

Rexy had proven more than invaluable to Joanne's research, and the professor knew that she had only barely scratched the surface! Rexy was far more than the lumbering, stupid, repetitive animal most uneducated idiots thought her to be. She was a spitfire, a legendary warrior, a proud animal, and she boasted a secret intelligence that very select few knew about. In the month and a half that Joanne had been studying the Tyrannosaurus, she had learned all new angles and sides to the personality of the creature, as well as confirming and dismissing previous palaeontology theories. Joanne now knew that the T-Rex was fiercely territorial, but everything within that territory it would jealously guard as its own. But if Rexy sensed a threat that lay outside of her enclosure (such as one time two delivery vehicles had crashed into each other just outside her paddock and she had heard the explosion) she would throw a fit in an attempt to get to and eliminate the threat. But despite her aggressive and possessive behaviour, Joanne had discovered a rather inquisitive, curious side to the old girl. Rexy liked to explore new things, she liked to see how things worked, and every time a new object was placed in her enclosure, Rexy would immediately know and would thoroughly inspect it. It was so informative!

And whilst she learned more about the tyrannosaurus species and Rexy herself, Joanne also found a few things that made her feel a little… sad. Every sunset, Rexy would stare from the tallest hill of her enclosure over what she could see of the park, her golden gaze fixing on every single thing she could. She held a fierce, protective and yearning gaze, and Joanne seemed to know that Rexy longed for the chance to be back out into the wider spaces, defending her larger territory, as she had done when she had roamed the whole island freely. Joanne knew from personal experience that instinctively wild animals, once given their freedom, didn't like to go back to captivity so easily, for a part of them always remembered what it was like to live their own lives. The icing on the proverbial cake, was that Rexy was _bored_. The Rex was bored of doing the same routine day in and day out, whether as when she was free, every day had been something new to stimulate her. It worried the professor greatly. Joanne also noticed that Rexy would sometimes look at her nest (Joanne never managed to get close and had to settle from spying from a distance through binoculars), and would seem to look as if she were searching for something she knew wasn't there. Joanne knew that look, it was the look of an animal who yearned for younglings of her own but knew that that could never happen. Not only was there no other T-Rex's on Isla Nublar, or that Jurassic World's board would never entertain the idea of breeding more T-Rex's, but also, Rexy was too old now. And the Tyrannosaurus seemed to know this and it disappointed her secretly.

So many traits, so many sides to the real Queen of the park, every report Joanne filed said how Rexy far exceeded her expectations.

But of course, Joanne already knew she would. She knew from terrifying experience that T-Rex's were _far_ more complicated than people gave them credit for.

The adult pair that she had interacted with on Isla Sorna jumped immediately to her mind. Joanne felt her side twitch with a phantom pain as she remembered getting wedged in those deadly teeth. The larger of the two, the female, she remembered as being extremely similar to Rexy. So similar in fact, now that Joanne thought about it, the two could have been sisters, and probably were. The male had been slightly younger from what Joanne had been able to tell, probably from another batch of eggs from the lab before Site B had been abandoned. Joanne had thought she knew all that there was to know about Ingen's artificial theme-park dinosaurs, but upon facing the Rexes herself, and then their baby… they'd quickly showed her that she knew next to nothing.

Coming back to the present, Joanne was greeted by the security Jeep that quickly picked her up at the edge of Rexy's enclosure and sped her away towards the gate. There was no fear of Rexy showing up to chase them, as she was right now busy with one of her shows. As the Jeep drove along the bumpy road, Joanne scribbled down as many notes as she could about what she had seen today.

After escaping the enclosure and making it back to the staff locker room for paddock's 9 to 13, Joanne clicked a shoulder tiredly as she put her rucksack in her locker. God, her bones ached. Perhaps she was getting too old for this shit.

 _Naaa._ She thought with a rueful grin. She was only thirty three, a spring-chicken!

As she chuckled to herself about the joke, she heard the locker-room door open, and she turned to see a man come barrelling in. He wore a blue shirt, leather waist-coat-like-jacket, jeans and leather boots. His golden hair was clipped short, almost in a military style, and he had short stubble on his face. The man fixed his eyes on her, and Joanne cocked a brow at how fiercely he was staring at her, as if he were about to murder someone.

"Joanne Teerly?" The man asked sharply.

"Yeah…?" Joanne said slowly as she turned to fully face the man. She didn't like how he was boring down over her as he marched himself over to her. Perhaps she had spent too much time with animals, but she felt her instinct to claim the ground she walked on, and stood firmly.

"I want to know what the hell kind of dinosaur the labs think they can just pop out of the oven without even –!" The man started his angry rant until he was standing toe to toe with her, but Joanne cut him off.

"Whoa!" She said loudly with a wave of her hand for silence, taking command. The animal in her would not be spoken to in such a way on the ground she'd claimed. She took a calming breath before even deigning the man the right to make eye contact with her. "First of all, who the hell are you?"

"Owen Grady." The man said tightly, though it was obvious that he was trying to calm himself as she had.

"Well, Owen Grady," Joanne murmured. "What you mind telling me why you feel the need to barge in here and shout at a stranger?" Her nose then caught a strong scent that stung her nostrils and she crinkled her face in disgust. "And why do you smell like gasoline?"

"Because that was the only thing that stopped me from becoming a chew-toy to your dinosaur." Mr Grady all but barked at her.

" _My_ dinosaur?" Joanne blinked in confusion.

"You know what I'm talking about! The Indominus Rex!" Owen yelled in clear agitation.

Joanne felt her heart stop with shock.

"Are they alright? Did you see them? How are they doing?" Joanne's words came out in a rushed muddle as she tried to speak a million miles an hour in order to get all the thoughts out of her head.

"First of all," Owen had to take a step back from the sheer force of her concerned questions. "There is no ' _they_ '. There's only one of them that I saw – and I pray to sweet Jesus it's the only one."

"What…" The professor frowned. "But, there were two…"

"Claire said the big one ate the smaller sibling." Owen said.

"Oh… God!" Joanne whispered slowly, and thought her stomach might turn itself inside out in horror.

"Yeah, 'oh god' is right." The man said icily as he gestured over his shoulder in the general direction he had just come from. "That thing just set a trap and lured us in to make its own escape. No normal dinosaur I've seen can do that."

"She… did what?" Joanne felt her breath turn to ice as that implication hit her, still reeling from her nausea. Her Little White one had always been smart, but very prone to chaos, and Joanne could only imagine what she would do if she escaped. "She's loose?"

"Yeah," Owen, nodded, his eyes blazing again. "Now I want to know what the hell is going on here, because that thing – it isn't normal!"

"What makes you think I know anything about it?" Joanne snapped back, her temper becoming thin.

"Claire said you were the one the animal imprinted on." He pointed out.

"That doesn't mean I know what she is! That information was classified, no one would tell me."

"You were her handler," He said as if this should be the obvious answer. "How could you not know? Why would Claire want you to raise it if you didn't know a thing about it."

"Because I know a few things about animals like her." Joanne retorted.

"Really?" Owen's scoff was proof of his scepticism.

"My dad bred wolf-dog hybrids, and I studied the behaviour of deadly predators in the wild." She drew herself to her full height as she bristled at the challenge in Grady's tone. She would never settle for someone telling her she couldn't do something, or that her achievements meant any less than others. "Claire Dearing told me that the base of the Indominus was T-Rex, and she thought me best suitable because I had previous… _hands-on_ experience with T-Rexs."

"Like what?" He asked, seeming to lose the anger momentarily as he studied her curiously.

"When John Hammond ordered the research team to document Site B in order to preserve it, I was sent with Sarah Harding to study the animals." Joanne explained. "But we got separated and I encountered a T-Rex mated pair and their offspring."

"Whoa…" Owen whistled. "And Claire hired you to be the Indominus's handler?"

"Yeah." She murmured. "She made me an offer I couldn't refuse..."

"But Claire said you were separated from the project?"

"When the sibling gave me _this_." Joanne muttered as she quickly drew up her sleeve on her right arm and unflinchingly showed him the puckered pink scar that marred the flesh of her forearm. "They were only a week old."

"A week old?!" Owen asked in clear anger at the revelation. "I can't imagine what the years of isolation has done to –"

" _Years_?" The professor blinked. "Mr Grady, you misunderstand… That was fourteen _months_ ago."

"Fourteen months…" Owen turned a lighter shade of pale at the words. "You mean to tell me that that thing has grown gigantic, in fourteen _months?!_ "

"Gigantic…?" Joanne echoed, for now Owen didn't seem so misinformed anymore if her Little White had truly become _gigantic_ …

"Yeah…" Owen nodded gravely. "Look, it's obvious that neither of us have the answers. But I know someone who does." He then turned and began to march towards the door, and Joanne quickly followed him. Upon hearing her footsteps, Grady paused and turned to frown at her. "Where're you going?"

"An animal I was responsible for has just escaped, putting herself and this whole park at risk, and you think I'm just going to stay behind? I don't think so." She scoffed as she shoved past him and made her way out the door.

"Yes Ma'am." Owen couldn't help but smile to himself as he followed her out.

They made their way over towards the Visitor Centre of the park, the large glass pyramid looming up ahead. It was mostly tense silence as the pair marched onwards, Joanne easily keeping pace with the longer legged man beside her. People seemed to notice the darkening storm cloud of Grady's temper growing again and avoided the pair. After a while, Owen seemed to sigh before he broke the silence almost as if he were obligated to do so.

"So if it's been fourteen months since you were pulled from the project, what are you still doing here?" He asked as he carried on walking.

"Three months ago, the resident Allosaurus went crazy – more than likely from heat stroke – and almost got loose before it keeled over and died." Joanne replied as she continued walking, not even glancing at him as she explained. "The Costa Rican government doesn't want a repeat of the previous park, and wanted to commence a study to make sure the more dangerous animals are stable and not under threat of escaping in a freak accident. They called me in to study the Tyrannosaurus. Let's just say Miss Dearing was not happy to let me back into the park…"

"Yeah, she didn't seem too fond of you." Owen winced.

"That's because the last time I saw her, when I first came back a month and a half ago, I threatened to break her pretty little nose if she didn't let me see the Indominus." The professor all but growled.

"Ouch." Owen said, but couldn't help but smirk at the woman's ferocious nature. She oddly reminded him of his girl Delta: calm and collected, but push her buttons and she had a temper to rival anything on earth. No wonder Barry liked her.

"Not my best move." Joanne smirked.

They carried on in silence for a little while longer, having to slow down for the thicker crowds the closer they came to the pyramid. But seeing as how Owen felt the need to breach their former animosity when they had met, Joanne felt she needed to at least do the same. And she was genuinely curious about…

"So, if you were there when she escaped…" She said slowly as her mind tried to process her line of questioning. "You came straight to me? Why? How did you find me?"

"Apart from the scientists, I know everything there is to know about my girls. I thought the same would be with you." Owen shrugged as they sidestepped a woman with a large double pram filled with crying toddlers and entered the pyramid. "I just gave Barry a call… He knows where you work."

"Barry…" Joanne blinked as she recognised the name, before realisation dawned on her. "Oh! You're _THE_ Owen! The Velociraptor handler."

"The one and only…" Owen smiled, kind of touched that Barry had mentioned him when he'd gone with Joanne on their date. Poor guy, he was still hopeful he would get a second one. Owen brought his mind back to the matter at hand as he called a lift and he and Joanne stepped inside. "And about to kick CEO ass."

The ride down to the Control Room was very tense, and Joanne could feel her own frustration and anger born from months of not knowing bubbling inside of her. By the time they neared the floor of their destination, the professor was practically fuming! She'd known it had been a bad idea to take the Indominus chicks away, she had warned Claire! And now it seems that in her absence her Little White, her sweet smart one, had been neglected and left to rot alone. It made Joanne furious! When she had come to Claire and demanded to see the hatchlings, Claire had denied her access for multiple reasons, but always assured her that they were under the best of care.

 _That lying bitch!_

As the elevator doors pulled apart to reveal the dimly lit, computer-filled Control Room, Owen and Joanne were both of equal anger as they stormed into the room, completely ignoring the security guard that tried to stop them.

"Sir, Miss, I need to see a badge –" The man tried to say but the pair walked right past him. "Sir! Miss! I need to see a –"

"What the hell happened out there?!" Owen demanded as he tried to go towards Claire, though two security officers came and quickly blocked his path, though he didn't seem to notice. "There are thermal cameras all over that paddock, she did not just disappear!"

"It must have been some kind of a… technical malfunction." Claire murmured dismissively glancing in Owen's direction in an attempt to pacify him, before her eyes fell on Joanne and widened in indignation. "What is she doing here?"

"You think I would just ignore the fact that my animal is loose, and clearly unstable?" Joanne asked coldly. Claire fixed Owen with a look as if to blame him for telling. "I told you what would happen if you took them away! I told you there would be consequences! You traumatised her!"

"And who exactly are you?" Came the heavily accented yet soothing voice of Simon Masrani.

"Joanne Teerly." The woman introduced herself with a calmer tone for the owner of the entire park. "I'm the Indominus' handler."

"You _were_ , Miss Teerly." Claire said in an unemotional voice. "You were pulled off of the project."

"And now look what's happened!" Joanne rounded on Claire angrily.

"You want to blame this on me?" Claire held her head higher. "Nothing would have made a difference. The asset simply took its opportunity to escape as soon as it noticed the doors open."

"Were you not watching?!" Owen cut in with an angry look. "She marked up that wall as a distraction. She wanted us to think she escaped!"

"Hold on. We are talking about an _animal_ here." Claire turned on him.

"A _highly intelligent_ animal!" Owen argued back.

"I told you she was right from the start." Joanne snapped at Claire. "With any intelligent animal, you need to keep them mentally stimulated – from what I hear, you put her in a too-small paddock and just left her to her own devices!"

"We had no evidence to suggest it possessed anything but the most rudimentary intelligence –"

"Did you not even _read_ my reports?!" Joanne demanded furiously.

"400 metres to the beacon." Vivian's voice came out, making the three pause slightly.

They all turned towards the screens on the large wall in front of them. Joanne felt her breath catch slightly, her heart starting to beat faster with nerves as she watched the cameras on the suits of the ACU soldiers as they combed through the thick forest of the jungle, making their way towards a creek in the distance. Joanne felt her eyes scanning each screen of the twenty men that were armed and looking about silently as they searched. She was looking for the familiar form of her Little White, though it seemed Grady had found something else to take note of.

"You're going after her with non-lethals…" He murmured in disbelief.

"We have twenty-six million dollars invested in that asset. We can't just kill it." Masrani said in an almost exasperated manner. Joanne felt her heart torn as she agreed with both points. If anything of what Owen had said had a shred of truth, then those men needed more than just stun-guns. But at the same time she couldn't bear to watch her baby die on this cold and unfeeling screen…

"Those men are gonna die." Owen whispered to Claire, a pleading look on his face.

"300 metres to the beacon…" Vivian said, a slight tremor in her voice with nerves.

"You need to call this mission off right now…" Owen said.

"They're right on top of it," Lowery pointed out.

"Call it off right now –"

"You are not in control here!" Claire shouted, as if finally at the end of her rope. It was her last attempt at keeping her own illusion of ' _control'_ and Joanne could hear it a mile off. But still, as she watched the men get closer to the creek, Joanne felt a horrid sense of dread fill her stomach that made her look back at Claire pleadingly.

"Please… don't do this…" She whispered, her eyes glistening as she shamelessly begged. Claire's eyes softened, as if she truly felt remorse or was even considering the beseeching look, but before she could speak, a voice spoke through the speakers, drawing the attention of everyone back to the large screen.

" _Blood's not clotted yet… its close."_ Said the ACU leader. Through his camera, Joanne squinted as she thought she saw a handful of pink puckered flesh and scale in the man's hand, a small blinking blue light coming from within.

"What is that?" Misrani asked, deeply confused, and the rest of the room shared his thoughts as they all tried to see what it was.

"That's her tracking implant – she clawed it out…" Owen said as he looked up at the screen in seemingly mounting horror, and Joanne felt her sense of dread growing.

"How would it know to do that?" Claire asked, mystified.

"She remembered where they put it in." Owen murmured. Joanne felt a jolt as she remembered the day the hatchlings received the implants. The vet had said they would forget about it, but Joanne had often spied Little White sometimes unconsciously scratching at the spot as if there was an itch she couldn't quit scratch.

Something crackled on the screen, and they all saw through the camera as the leader straightened and looked up towards the trees. Something melted out of the leaves, emerald green gave way to snowy white, and Joanne felt her jaw drop as she saw the gigantic form of her once little hatchling materialise out of thin air.

She was perhaps eighteen feet tall, over thirty feet long, her snowy white scales dirtied with grime, her jaw of over-crowded teeth slightly crooked when closed. Her spines had grown and her back was decorated with bumps like that of an alligator's back. Slight horns had grown above her eyes… but her eyes… they were not the warm golden glow that Joanne remembered. They were cold, hateful orbs of crimson.

" _It can camouflage!"_ The leader of the ACU screamed as he tried to turn to run, but was quickly snatched up into the large hand of the Indominus as she sprung into action. The rest of the team opened fire on her, and she roared at them, before throwing the leader to the ground and stomping on him like a child would squash an ant.

 _Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep…_ Droned the heart-rate monitor of the leader as it signalled his demise.

Chaos erupted on screen, and Joanne tried to follow it with bated breath and mounting horror, trying to figure out which outcome she was hoping for. Should she want the ACU team to win and imprison or worse kill her Little White? Or should she wish for the Indominus to win this battle but at the cost of the lives of the ACU?

The ACU team tried to strike her with the electric cattle-prods and stun guns, but all it did was work the angry dinosaur into a frenzy as she stumbled about, knocking over trees as she did so in an attempt to avoid the stings of the weapons. She lashed out with her claws and tail at every chance she got, each time the drone of the long beeps told of another victim. One soldier managed to get a net around her jaws and clamp them shut. But the predator panicked as she furious tried to work to pull it off. Joanne whimpered in the back of her throat as she heard the dinosaur's growls and sharp yelps as it tried to break free, displaying an almost fearful behaviour of being confined by the net. But she managed to get it off and instantly turned on the soldiers with a vengeance as she snatched one into the air and shook him apart as his blood rained onto the leaves of the trees. Joanne had to look away.

Some ACU members tried to drag their wounded, one or two providing cover fire. But it only seemed to goad the Indominus on, as she charged at them and snapped her jaws around them. The silence in the Control Room as the scene finally ended was deafening. Joanne felt she would be sick, feeling her body trembling as she tried to comprehend if this was all some disturbing nightmare or not. Beside her, Owen slowly turned to look at the others behind him, his own face pale.

"… Evacuate the island…" He whispered.

"We'd never re-open…" Claire murmured in a seemingly last attempt justify herself.

"You made a genetic hybrid, raised it in captivity. She is seeing all of this for the first time." Owen said with mounting anger as he pointed to the screen where the carnage had just finished behind him. " _She_ doesn't even know what she _is_. She will kill _everything_ that moves."

"You think the animal is contemplating its own existence?" Masrani said.

"She doesn't know the rules…" Joanne said weakly, shakily, as she tried to compose herself. "No one was there to teach her right from wrong; she will do anything she can _because_ she has can."

"She is learning where she fits in the food chain…" Owen agreed as he looked at Masrani. "And I'm not sure you want her to figure that out." The people in the room looked at each other gravely. "Now, Asset Containment can use live ammunition in an emergency situation. You have an M134 in your armoury. Put it on a chopper, and smoke this thing!"

"What?" Joanne protested. "No! You can't do that! This isn't her fault! She's just confused and unstable!"

"We have families here." Claire agreed with her old confidence back. "I'm not gonna turn this place into some kind of a war-zone."

"You already have." Owen said the unfortunate truth.

"Mr Grady, if you're not gonna help, there's no reason for you to be in here." Claire told him coldly.

Owen gritted his teeth in frustration as he swiped his hand along the closest work station and scattered all of Lowery's toy dinosaurs. The computer nerd sagged as he glanced at his discarded toys. Owen then marched past the CEO towards the exit, but paused beside a worried looking Masrani.

"I would have a word with your people in the lab." Owen said in a soft voice, but Joanne could still just about hear him. "That thing out there… that's no dinosaur."

Grady then left, and Joanne kept her eyes on Masrani, the words playing over in her mind. When Masrani finally turned to leave, Joanne quickly followed him. He didn't say a word to stop her, he just looked at her, nodded, and they went to the lift.

* * *

Joanne stood straight and stiff in Doctor Wu's office, looking around at the immaculate white walls and floor with a shiver. The room seemed so cold, so lifeless and un-personal, it was weird to think. Shouldn't Wu have pictures of family or friends somewhere? Or a plant or two to brighten up the place? She'd heard office-types liked that sort of thing. Tucking a golden-brown hair behind her ear, she turned her attention back to the two men sitting at the desk.

Henry Wu was pouring them herbal tea, seemingly disinterested in the very uneasy looks he was getting from his "guests". Masrani had seemed to want Joanne there, though she didn't know why but didn't question it. In fact, neither had Wu as he had calmly led them into his office. He'd offered them both a seat, but whilst Masrani took the offer gratefully, Joanne politely declined. Perhaps she had been studying predators too long, but when in an unknown environment and in a possibly hostile situation, she couldn't relax. So she stood a few feet behind Masrani close to the wall, standing tall and firm as she unconsciously claimed the ground she stood on.

"You know that I'm not at liberty to reveal the assets genetic makeup." Wu murmured softly to the unspoken question. He knew why they were here, for as soon as the Indominus escaped a park-wide alert had been sent to the staff. He offered his guests the tea but the both declined, and he looked at them almost pityingly. "Modified animals have been known to be unpredictable."

" _Unpredictable_ doesn't account for her, Dr Wu." Joanne stated in a crisp tone. "Modified and unpredictable she may have been, but only neglect could have led to a meltdown like this."

"I was in charge of her creation, not her treatment." Wu said calmly.

"You were in charge of the entire project." The professor bit out.

"I am still not responsible for how the Indominus was handled, no matter what you believe." Wu waved her away dismissively, and Joanne flexed her jaw in frustration.

"It's killed people, Henry…" Masrani murmured quietly, pleadingly as he tried to make the scientist realise the gravity of the situation.

"That's unfortunate." The words were so forced Joanne felt her lip curl.

"What purpose could we have for a dinosaur that can _camouflage_?" Masrani asked, a hint of suspicion in his voice.

"Cuttlefish DNA was added to help her withstand an accelerated growth rate." Wu explained slowly, as if he were explaining it to a child, and Joanne felt her nails dig into her palms. "Cuttlefish have chromataphores that allow the skin to change colour."

"It hid from thermal technology." Masrani said.

"Really?" Wu asked, his brows rising just the slightest bit in order to show his surprise. But Joanne only read a _good_ kind of surprise, not a bad kind.

"How is that possible?" Masrani went on to ask.

"Tree frogs can modulate their infrared output. We used strands from their DNA to adapt her to a tropical climate, but… I never imagined –"

"Bullshit." Joanne hissed out, unable to take it a second longer.

"I beg your pardon?" Wu blinked at her in shock and slight outrage.

"You've not been really surprised by _anything_ we've said!" Joanne all but hissed. "I don't know why, but somehow, you _wanted_ to hear this!"

"Oh please," Henry scoffed coldly. "Are you next going to say that I wanted to bring down the entire park? To have all the dinosaurs turned loose? I've been through that once, I don't care to experience it again."

"But you _made_ her!" Joanne slammed her hands onto the desk as she glared at Wu with a burning gaze. "You know exactly what she is!"

"Yes, I created her." Wu glared back unflinchingly, though the rest of his face still held that infuriating calm appearance. "But I didn't intend for this."

"Then you expect me to believe that this was all some mistake? Some horrid, unforeseen side-effect?" Joanne sneered. "Didn't the last Jurassic Park fail because of the unintentional side effects of your creations?"

"I did what I was assigned to do." He snapped.

"Who authorised you to do this?" Masrani's voice cut the pair off as he gave Wu a hard and unreadable gaze.

"You did." Wu said slowly, before a frustrated scoff escaped him as he shook his head. "' _Bigger'. 'Scarier'. 'Cooler',_ I believe is the word you used in your memo." He said mockingly.

"Then why can't he see them? If he authorised it, then why can't he see the list of what you put in her genes?" Joanne pressed.

"Because the commission came from higher up then Masrani." Wu told her, the corners of his mouth twitching into a barely visible triumphant smirk. "He just gave the okay to do it in his park."

"Is that true?" Joanne asked as she turned to look at Simon Masrani.

"Yes…" The man said with a slow sigh. "But I merely assumed that I would simply be getting a new attraction – not that thing out there."

"I did only what you asked." Wu pointed out. "You cannot have an animal with exaggerated predator features, without the corresponding behavioural traits."

"And what of her behavioural traits towards humans?" Joanne asked. "You want to talk predator behaviour, then let's. Most large predators avoid human contact in the wild, only voluntarily interacting to defend their territory. Her behaviour was almost _vengeful_!"

"As you have described, Professor Teerly, the animal has been treated poorly." Wu said. "Big Cats like Lions and certain breeds of dog have often shown vengeful behaviour, so I don't see why this should be a surprise."

"Because she's had it since birth." Joanne stated, her eyes piercing into Wu's. "When she hatched right out of the egg, she wouldn't allow anyone but me near."

"Her imprinting instinct was strong then."

"Strong is one thing," Joanne said. "But she wouldn't let me leave her and refused to allow anyone else near." The professor remembered that week where she had lived with the newly-hatched dinosaurs, of how the hatchlings were so affectionate and delicate to her. And it had lulled her into a false sense of security until the accident happened. Yet even though she knew she should have been more careful, she couldn't find it in herself to regret getting so close to the hatchlings. They'd felt like they were her own children, nestling their way into her heart.

"Many birds imprint heavily on their mother, to the point where they cannot be handled by any human interference." Wu explained.

"Yes, but that is only initially." Joanne argued.

"The bond was meant to last in order to establish a positive connection to human interaction." The scientist said. "Taking her from you clearly traumatised the animal, but I wouldn't be surprised if she still recognised you. It's what we wanted to achieve."

"What did you want to achieve?!" Joanne demanded.

"We wanted an animal that could heed commands," Wu said in exasperation. "Having it imprint on someone with complete trust was the easy solution."

"What you are doing here… what you have done…" Masrani said coldly as he slowly stood to his feet, buttoning up his suit jacket as he slowly made his way towards the door. Joanne, after spying the man's eyes flickering to her, made a move to follow him, when he hesitated just before the door. "The board will shut down this park, seize your work, everything you've built! And Hammond won't be there to protect you this time."

"All of this exists because of me." Wu muttered defiantly, a spark of anger in his eyes. "If I don't innovate, somebody else will."

"Maybe you shouldn't." Joanne spat. "Maybe learn when to say 'no'."

"You are to cease all activities here immediately." Masrani stated as he turned to leave.

"You are acting like we are engaged in some kind of mad science." Wu snorted at them derisively, causing the pair to pause as they looked at him. "But we are doing what we have done from the beginning. _Nothing_ in Jurassic World is natural! We have always filled gaps in the genome with the DNA of other animals. And, if their genetic code was pure, many of them would look quite different. But you didn't ask for reality. You asked for more teeth!" Wu snarled.

"I never asked for a monster!" Masrani asked, his temper frayed thin.

"' _Monster'_ is a relative term." Wu muttered. "To a canary, a cat is a monster. We're just used to being the cat."

* * *

 **Please review!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's Note: Hey guys, just a quick couple of things concerning the chapter: I'm sorry its shorter then the first 2 chapters, but due to how I wanted to pace this story out, I had to end it here and I pushed everything I could into it. I know that last chapter I was very movie-based, but this chapter onwards is where things start to get AU. So I hope you enjoy it.**

 **Also, I have a music prompt for this chapter. When you see this sign: (*) I recommend you play "Dear Agony - Breaking Benjamin (Instrumental Piano Cover)" by Tahsan113 on youtube on repeat until you see the sign again. The original song I think really fits The Indominus Rex in my story, and this instrumental is just beautiful and it's now the main theme of my story. Note, this is not the song that Joanne sings as a lullaby, that song will come later.**

 **I hope you guys enjoy the chapter - and please don't forget to review!**

* * *

"Do you believe in Grady's theory?" Masrani's sudden question brought Joanne out of her contemplative mood. They were walking back from Dr Wu's office towards the control room, and thankfully the corridors were mostly empty, as park guests were being rounded up back at the resort. At least Claire had managed to do _something_ right. She blinked up at the park CEO, and he elaborated. "About the animal finding it's place in the food chain, contemplating its existence. Do you think he's right?"

"I don't know…" The professor said slowly.

"You make that sound as if that's the worst answer," Masrani commented, trying to lighten the mood but his eyes were still extremely hard.

"She's always displayed remarkable intelligence, ever since she hatched," Joanne said, unable to keep the smallest hint of pride out of her voice, even if she was silently horrified at the secret behind where such intelligence came from. "But usually intelligent animals need to be kept stimulated. You ever seen a bored Border Collie? Or a bored German Shepard? Inexperienced dog owners usually get rid of their dogs because of 'destructive behaviour', like them eating the furniture. I knew someone who said the dog ate through a plasterboard wall. They only do that when they're bored."

"She did a lot more then eat through a wall…" Masrani murmured dryly.

"She was bored a long time ago; when they stuck her in that small paddock and didn't give her anything to do besides eat." Joanne shot out with a slightly defensive tone. "Boredom can turn someone destructive. She's had no mental stimulation, and no interaction."

"From what Claire told me, the animal ate its sibling after only being 24 hours in the paddock." Masrani said.

"Wait… she did it then?" Joanne asked, trying to ignore her nausea of the idea of the little babies she'd come to care for ripping each other apart. She didn't understand why her Little White would kill her grey sister. They had been territorial with one another, competitive even, but never had she imagined… She swallowed the bile at the back of her throat. Could it have been something to do with them being separated from her? If it had occurred so soon after being placed in the paddock, it must have something to do with that.

"An unprovoked attack, apparently." Masrani murmured, seeing the distress the woman suffered at the words, and put a comforting hand on her shoulder before continuing to walk on. "But it doesn't seem like she wanted company."

"She was always so… _gentle_ with me…" Joanne couldn't help but whisper longingly.

"But that brings me back to my original question – do you think the animal is questioning its place in the world?" Masrani asked.

"Animals are taught the natural order from a young age because they interact with other animals." Joanne said. "Lions won't go near crocodiles unless they have no choice, because they know from a young age that crocodiles are dangerous. Predators learn whether they prefer scavenging or hunting through life experience, though usually they don't get much choice. She's not been taught that, so she doesn't know anything of the natural order. But…"

"But?" Masrani prompted.

"What she did at the creek…" Joanne tried to supress a shiver. "That was supreme intelligence. That was planning, innovation, adaptation, the ability to set a trap and almost… it almost looked like she was acting out. She didn't display behaviour to hunt, and it couldn't have been to protect her territory because she hasn't made a claim to the area, she just keeps moving onward. That was… anger. Pure, vengeful anger."

Masrani didn't say anything, hooked on her every word as if a spell hung over them.

"So to answer your question…" The woman murmured as the horrid realisation dawned on her. "No… I don't think she's contemplating her own existence. I think she's moved past that. I think now it's just about payback."

"For what?"

"You tell me." She murmured.

"Then how do we stop her?" Masrani asked as he brought them to a halt outside the elevator that would take them to the control room, thankfully the corridor they were in was empty. "You seem to know her better than anyone else. So what do we do?"

"You're not going to kill her?" Joanne dared to hope.

"I'd rather not waste 26 million dollars." Masrani murmured with a deadpan look.

"She seems to be experiencing some kind of… mental lapse." Joanne said, a frown forming on her face as she tapped her chin in thought. "With animals that go rouge, usually one of two things happen: either they carry on in their rampage until they literally drop, or, they break."

"Break?" Masrani asked with a frown.

"It's where the animal runs out of juice." Joanne explained a little impatiently. "The animal's rampage is sustained by its surroundings, or mental stimulation. As soon as it reaches a pass it can't take its anger out on, they break. It's like all the systems in the brain completely shut down and have to reboot. Though… usually the reboot doesn't leave everything… intact." She said gravely. "The real question is: how long until that break happens? How much damage can she do before that?"

Joanne had once seen a travelling circus when she'd been journeying through India, back when she'd only just passed her Ph.D, and it had been her first trip out in the field. The circus had three elephants, performing various sorts of tricks. The keepers had obviously either never heard of or completely disregarded animal-rights laws, for they whipped their animals, frightened them and even used the barbaric elephant-pole to force the animals to perform. Joanne had been appalled at the sight, and she'd almost given the ring-master a broken nose when he'd blatantly told her that he didn't care unless she wanted to throw money at him to take the elephants off of his hands – and being on an academic research trip at the time, she'd obviously had little to no money. She'd then heard later on that the next day, that one of the elephants had seemingly had enough, and snapped. It had attacked and killed the ring-master during a show in a fit of rage before destroying everything in its reach. It had only been stopped when the local authorities had had no choice but to shoot the mad elephant down.

Joanne had also seen an animal break in person. It had been a few years ago, perhaps just before she'd been called on by John Hammond to accompany Sarah Harding to Isla Sorna for the Site B research expedition. Joanne had been in the Congo jungles, trying to help the authorities with a band of ape-slavers (as Joanne had called them). They were Poachers who tracked down and hunted Gorillas before caging them and either slaughtering them or sending them off to god-knew where to whatever buyer would pay the highest for the traumatised animals. Joanne and her group had come across the poacher's base in an old abandoned bunker from the remains of the British Empire. There they'd found bodies almost ripped in half from sheer brute strength, or chests and heads caved in. The Poachers, all four of them, were dead, and the tight cage they'd kept the Gorilla in had been opened. They'd pieced together that the Gorilla must have somehow escaped, and after being driven insane by the trauma of having watched his family die or violently torn from them and then tortured in a cage, he'd killed his captors. They'd found the Gorilla sitting in a corner, whimpering and crying as he rocked back and forth, his mind utterly destroyed as he was oblivious to everything around him. Joanne herself had whispered her apologies, before putting the poor animal out of his misery. She and the rest of her group had needed therapy after that. It was the reason why she had taken Hammond's job so quickly without a second thought for the consequences, feeling that she needed to be back out in the field to remind herself of the wonders of nature.

Remembering the elephant and the gorilla, the two examples of a mentally broken animal, it made Joanne shiver. She prayed to whatever god would listen – even though she didn't believe in one – that those sorry endings wouldn't happen to her Little White.

"How long do you think until she breaks?" Masrani's question brought her out of her morbid thoughts as she focused back on the conversation with a shake of her head.

"I don't know." Joanne said gravely. "By the looks of it, she will have plenty of things to occupy her and keep her going."

"Are you suggesting we leave her to her own devices? You know we can't do that." Masrani shook his head, bewildered at such a thought.

"But you know it's not a good idea to go shooting guns at her." The professor pressed.

"That animal will kill everything in this park unless we do something." The CEO told her sternly as he turned to walk into the elevator.

"I thought you said you didn't want to waste your money!" Joanne said angrily as she caught hold of his arm to stop him from leaving.

"But if it means that I can save 21 thousand people? Of course I will!" Masrani shot back. But then, he sighed, looking so tired as he glanced back at Joanne. She dropped her hand from his arm, and was a little surprised to feel his hand on her shoulder and heard his gentle voice as he spoke. "Believe me, I don't want to do this. But I have no choice."

And with those final words, he walked into the elevator. He offered her room beside him with but a gesture of his hand, but Joanne shook her head, and he disappeared as the doors closed. She stood there for a moment, uncertain of what to do. Masrani was right, he had no choice, a lot of people now had no choice but to do their jobs to protect themselves, and she didn't blame them for that. Fate had rolled its dice and now the pieces on the board had to move as they were bid, a lot of people didn't have the chance to defy it.

"I do." She murmured before setting her jaw and marching out.

She didn't know what she planned to do, she didn't even know if what she had in mind would work. But she couldn't sit by and do nothing. Her Little White had been an intelligent animal, capable of understanding even as a youngling. But now she was in trouble, she was in danger both from humans and from herself, and Joanne held herself slightly to blame for that. Little White and Grey were too young when they had been pulled from her, she should have fought harder to keep them, to check on their status. And now she was paying the price for it, the guilt tore at her heart until she couldn't stand it.

But what was done was done, and now there was no turning back. She could only move forward.

Going back to her locker, she picked out her licenced rifle which she always took with her whenever she went on a job. Raising wolf-dog hybrids with her father in the middle of nowhere, he had taught her to always be prepared when venturing into the wild. Her mother had frowned, but had much rather her daughter be alive then act like a proper lady. Little White (who wasn't so _little_ anymore) was last seen in the restricted area, and with a gigantic predator running around, if that place wasn't wild, then Joanne didn't know what was.

As she marched from her locker towards the staff garage, Joanne couldn't help but think: would this even work? Was she just putting herself in unnecessary danger because she wasn't thinking clearly? All of her time amongst animals had taught her to never let her heart rule her common sense. She couldn't anthropomorphise her feelings onto a wild animal; just because she thought she had a bond with a lion, didn't mean said lion wouldn't try to kill her when it was hungry. Animals thought differently to humans, and it was through naïve mistakes like believing yourself to be friends with a wild animal that got people killed. But having said that, Joanne had seen how attached Little White had been to her when she was young, how intelligent she was, how she remembered things. And hadn't Dr Wu said that he thought the Indominus had imprinted on her and therefore would recognise her? It was a conflicting puzzle, which was why Joanne had to play this carefully. She would need to find the Indominus and try to see her state of mood before making her move.

The staff garage was right on the edge of the resort, and by quickly showing her pass, she was able to get the keys for one of the gas jeeps. Though the clerk was more concerned about the gun she held rather than following protocol and asking who authorised her to leave for the restricted zone. She quickly drove the jeep out towards the jungle, checking her backpack for all the things she would need.

Torch – check. Fresh clothes – check. Containers – check. Flare – check. Candy bars – check. Ammunition – check. A pocket knife – check. Compass – check. Map – check. Cell phone… damn! She forgot the cell phone! Oh well, it wasn't as if she would get good signal anyway.

Years of living her professional career in Africa, Asia and South America, tracking and studying predators in the wild, had prepared her for this. She knew what she would be looking for. All she'd need to do is find her way into the restricted zone and to the last place she knew where her dinosaur had been.

The Gyrosphere valley would be her fastest ticket.

* * *

 _She_ leaned over the edge, claws hooked into the rock as the waterfall roared beside her. Her gold-red eyes narrowed as they focused on the foaming water below out of her reach, her tail flicking with impatience as she crouched and waited. She'd made a brilliant discovery when she'd found the two humans after she'd killed the hard-shell one. They'd been in a see-through ball, and it had reminded her of an almost forgotten memory, when she'd had a treat in a ball before and she had to try and force it open. She'd done the same trick to try and get the humans out, though they'd thought they could run from her. She'd chased them out of the jungle and into the open before they'd jumped off of a short cliff and into the bottom of a waterfall.

Knowing that they'd need to come up for air, she waited, but as the seconds ticked by she grew impatient. Finally, she gave up with a frustrated roar as she stood to her full height. With a stamp of her feet, she wandered off in irritation at not having killed the humans herself. But the water could have them, and as long as they were dead she didn't care. Two less humans to worry about.

So she wandered back through the jungle, wondering if perhaps she could go back to the plains and kill that last long-necked one she'd left behind. They'd been her first encounter with any large creature since she'd broken from her prison. She'd looked at them with a ferocious hunger, the conflicting voices inside of her telling her how to handle the hunt in different ways. She hadn't been particularly hungry, but the thought of hunting was mouth-watering. Killing them had been easy, her claws had carved them open and spilled their blood onto the grass, and she'd delighted in the way the others had screamed in panic when they smelled the blood and tried to flee, and it was easy pickings after that. But she'd learned the hard way to watch out for their tails. Despite the fact that they were slow and lumbering and stupid, their tails stung and almost split open her skin when it whipped into her side. The one that had managed to land a lucky shot on her, she'd no longer looked to for fun, but with hate. She'd made sure her slashes were deep and painful, but not instantly life threatening. Leaving the long-necked one lying upon the ground, surrounded by the death of her herd, she wanted the creature to lay there in agony in the hot sun, let it suffer in a very slow death for daring to try and harm her. She almost couldn't wait to return to the plain and find it still alive, writhing in pain so she could end it herself.

The Indominus knew that causing others pain was the only thing that made her happy in this too-big world. After she'd broken out of the paddock and gone into the jungle, she'd had to stop in order to process the world she suddenly inhabited. It was all so _much_ to comprehend! So much space, so many new scents, too many colours… it was almost an overload to her brain. She'd marvelled at how the world could be so new… but then she'd grown vengeful. The humans had been keeping this from her, they'd denied her the existence of this peaceful life amongst nature. There was so much space in the world, and they'd given her a tiny walled in prison just to drive her insane! That was why she'd taken out the foreign thing in her body, where she remembered that day when they'd driven it into her back. She knew they'd want it, and so set up an ambush for them when she'd heard them coming. The fight had invigorated her, spurred her on, made her even more determined to destroy everything the humans were. She wanted them erased for what they'd done to her.

Her mind was brought back to the present as she stalked through the jungle in the direction of the plains, a subtle hunger telling her that maybe she might take a bite out of the long-necked one just to keep away hunger out of habit. Whether she would eat it before or after she killed it would depend on her mood when she found the slowly dying animal.

But she became still when the wind shifted, and a scent drifted to her on the breeze. It was faint, meaning the wind had only brushed past it but she could still tell that it was human. Curling her lip with hatred, the Indominus quickly changed direction and went back towards the site where she had smashed the human ball. With a shiver of her scales, she became invisible as she blended in perfectly with her surroundings, becoming eerily still as she approached the edge of the battleground.

There was a lone human crouched beside the wreck of the glass ball, female by the looks of it, though the wind had completely died so that neither the Indominus or her prey could scent the other. Narrowing her eyes, the Indominus slowly crouched, shifting her weight ever so slightly so she wouldn't make a noise as she readied herself to spring.

Somehow, the human must have sensed her, for it became unnervingly still, before its hand slowly started to reach for the long metal thing that shot thunder and tiny stones that stung against her hide. Knowing that the hunt had now ended, the Indominus wasted no time and showed herself.

With a roar she charged, and the human shrieked before bolting towards the dense trees where the Indominus would have a harder time keeping up as it moved around the trunks. With a clawed hand, she batted the remains of the glass ball and sent it shooting forward. It almost ran over the human, narrowly avoiding her before it smashed into a tree right in front of her. The human screeched before quickly turning and running a different way, but the Indominus was quickly gaining. Throwing herself forward, the Indominus landed with her fore-claws digging into the earth as she skidded, and came to just within reach. She snapped her jaws shut on the human's backpack, jarring the human to a sudden stop as it yelled in panic. Climbing back to her feet, the Indominus hissed through her teeth before she disgustedly threw the human onto the ground where it slid and rolled away until it smacked into a tree. It tried to uselessly get up, but the Indominus snarled as she descended with her jaws open to crush –

" _STOP!_ "

The Indominus froze, eyes going wide as the voice rang out through the forest.

Her breath shivered in her throat, her blood ran cold though not of her own free will, her eyes widened and she took an uneasy step back. She knew that voice, she'd memorised it when she'd come out of the egg… She'd memorised her voice, her scent, her look, even her touch. Taking a deep breath, the Indominus recoiled when that scent (now that she could smell it completely) sang to her memory.

But this was impossible! It couldn't be! That had been so long ago… No, it must be a dream – some horrible, awful dream sent to torment her. Besides, she didn't remember her being _human_ or so _puny_. The one she remembered had been tall, loving, perfect, nothing like this.

But then the human looked up, and the Indominus' red-gold gaze met those of deep brown; eyes she'd remembered since the day of her birth. Her brown-gold crest of hair was still the same, her voice matched the face, and her skin looked as soft as before. The Indominus knew who she was…

 _Mother_.

But it couldn't be! She hissed as she backed up again several paces, not believing, and then anger and confusion filling her. It had been so long since that day! Where had she been?! Why did she only appear now, after all this time? It wasn't fair! She didn't get the right to come back as she pleased and not care what had been done to her!

The Indominus growled, and loomed over Mother, teeth bared and claws splayed as her eyes flashed dangerously. She was so _angry!_ How could Mother have done this to her?! The rage and hurt in her chest was enough to make her try to lunge for the human, who quickly backed up until she was pressed against the tree to avoid the snapping jaws.

"Little White!" Mother said sharply, making the Indominus freeze again at the sound of her voice, before she growled. This must have been an imposter, for Mother had always been gentle and soft with her! "My Little White…" She said again, more softly, like the loving croon that the Indominus remembered, and it made her stiffen. "It's alright… calm down…"

Little White… That had been her, hadn't it? Yes… she'd been littler, and cleaner, her scales a more snowy white back then. She'd had a name… Mother had given her that name… Yes, she remembered. She'd been Little White, Mother's sweet little white one, who'd only lived to be in her Mother's arms and feel her warmth. They'd been happy in the den, where nothing could hurt them. She was different then, she'd been smaller, innocent, better, with a clean soul, and no hurt, no ache, she'd been someone else once. She was –

The Indominus roared as pain shot across her skull as her heart twisted from the pain of the memories. She took several staggering steps away, her claws slashing out in instinctive self-defence as she cried out in pain. Her side brushed the bark of a tree, and she lashed around until she gripped the sides of it with her claws. The pain was so much that she had to squint her eyes to see through narrowed vision as she glared at the bark in front of her with a curl of her lip, willing the ache inside of her to leave. When it did not, she viciously smashed her head repeatedly into the tree, shaking it to its very roots as wood-chips went flying and the leaves shuddered as the trunk groaned under the force. Again and again, she drove her forehead into the bark until she felt pain flash across her snout, but it eased the pain the memories brought.

The memories brought nothing but an ache in her heart that twisted her stomach, and a fire in her brain as the long-buried memories attempted to burst from the cave she'd banished them too. When the pain in her brain started to ease, she gave out another howl before she slumped to the ground. Her eyes hurt from the pressure behind them, and her snout felt like it was on fire. Her heart still ached, it was painful to breathe for a moment, so she lay there and waited for it to pass.

She became aware of footsteps, and snapped open her eyes to see a human approaching. She growled a savage warning, not wanting to move yet as she shifted backwards on all fours. But then she recognised the human… Mother…

She whimpered as the pain threatened to take her over, and then growled. Mother was the cause of her pain. Anything that caused her pain had to die! Mother would die! Why couldn't she leave alone?! Why did she leave her alone in the first place?! She'd been so little, and loved her so much… why had she left? She deserved a fate worse than death for abandoning her hatchling! The voices in her head were conflicted in how to approach the situation, and they only added to the hurt in her brain. Some whispered one way to deal with Mother, others another. But she knew without a doubt that mothers don't abandon their hatchlings! That wasn't right! So why had she –

 **(*)**

She then felt a soft hand on the side of her neck, and her eyes snapped open in shock as she tried to pull away. Mother was kneeling right beside her! Mother murmured soothing noises… noises like she did when the Indominus had been a hatchling… back when she had been Little White. Despite herself, the Indominus found her muscles relaxing as she heard those familiar tones, and then Mother's touch… it was just as she remembered. Softness, heat, love in every tender touch. Mother's hands ran along her hide, stroking and massaging as she tried to sooth her.

The Indominus let out a sigh as she relaxed and closed her eyes. Mother's touch was as she remembered, and she was suddenly not in the jungle… they were back in the safety of the den, where no one could hurt them, and no one ever would. The Indominus whimpered, emotions making her heart squeeze and her chest hurt with such raw pain and anguish, she couldn't stand it. Still with her eyes closed, so that the dream wouldn't end, she pushed her face into Mother's arms, hearing a surprised intake of breath which she ignored.

She could hear Mother's heart… it was so warm, so steady, so calm… Mother's scent enveloped her, and the Indominus gave a soft croon as she pushed herself closer to Mother. Mother would make everything better, Mother would take the pain away, she would make it all better.

Soft chitters and whimpers could be heard from the Indominus as she allowed all the hurt and the pain to course through her. All the loneliness, the ache she'd felt in her chest since they'd been separated like a raw wound that had never healed. She whimpered for every cold night she'd spent alone without Mother's warmth and soothing songs. She cried in fear of the madness that had eaten her mind, the anger that had festered in her soul. She grieved for it all, and wept as much as she was able to without crying the tears she knew humans could. She just wanted someone to take away the pain, to stop her from hurting, just once.

"It's okay… It's okay…" Mother murmured. The Indominus whimpered again, Mother's voice always loving and soothing, and the pain intensified as she longed to hear it again, to be reassured that Mother wouldn't leave. She felt Mother's hand stroke the spines at the back of her head with one hand, whilst the other caressed her cheek as Mother pressed her head and torso against her scaly face. "I'm here… I've got you now… It's okay, my Little White…"

The Indominus' eyes snapped open, and the dream shattered. Hissing as if she had just been burned, the large carnivore almost leapt to her feet, stumbling away, her eyes wide with panic and pain as her chest was filled with such an aching deep heavy weight, it was almost too much to bear. For a moment she thought the pain was worse then what she'd felt in her head, it felt as if she'd dug her own claws into her chest to carve it open.

With a loud whine, the Indominus turned and trotted away, she couldn't stay here, she couldn't be near here. It was too painful. Long ago, she'd thought Mother would bring with her happiness and freedom, but she'd been very wrong. Instead Mother only brought memories that hurt too much, and emotions that hurt her heart until she wanted to die. That is, if this was even real. Somehow the Indominus couldn't seem to trust her senses. Her time since escaping the paddock had been so glorious, she almost believed that perhaps she'd actually died there and this open and beautiful world was the heaven that she'd always imagined and had now stepped into. It was either that or this was some delusion of her festering mind. It hurt too much to be real, but in a way, it also hurt too much to _not_ be real.

Marching away and through the trees, the Indominus stumbled over roots and bumped into trees as she shoved her way through ungracefully, not caring where she was going, and too focused on herself to care for her surroundings. Why had the dream been broken? Why couldn't she stay with Mother? Why had Mother called her that? She was no longer Little White, for that hatchling was clean and loved and safe and sane. Why couldn't Mother see that she was no longer that hatchling; she was now a twisted, monstrous, vengeful, tainted _Indominus!_ That's what the humans had turned her into – why couldn't Mother see that? Why did she have to torment her with the idea of what she had lost, and the identity that had been stolen from her?

Coming into a clearing, the Indominus heard the patter of footsteps behind her, and whirled around with a furious snarl. Could she not be left alone with her agony for just one minute?! Who dared to approach?! No one should dare to hunt her, for she was death incarnate! To her blazing fury she saw that it was a human. No! They would never take her back to the paddock – she'd rather die than be held a prisoner a second longer! If the humans she'd killed at the river were not message enough, then this one would be shown the same treatment. The humans had already done too much to her, and she was going to make them pay for it in blood owed.

Splaying her claws with a ferocious roar, she charged at the human, who screamed before dodging behind a tree. Twisting on the spot, the Indominus smashed her powerful tail into the side of the tree, completely uprooting it with her mighty strength and knocking it aside. The human who had huddled behind it leapt back and looked up at her with wide brown eyes –

The Indominus paused with a startled yelp… Mother? So the dream had continued… or this was real, she still wasn't certain. The Indominus took a few confused steps backwards, hunching her body as her claws tapped against her aching chest, a whine escaping her parted jaws as she shivered her breath in a soft hiss. Why did Mother's image torment her? Why did it follow? Why couldn't it just leave her alone?! The hurt was bad enough, but she was coping as she vented her rage onto the humans and their precious construction of order and control they had put on this world. What she didn't need was Mother coming and reminding her of how impure she was, of what she had become, of what the humans had malformed her into.

"Hey…" Came Mother's voice, soft but firm and demanding attention, and the Indominus felt compelled to look into those eyes she had remembered from so long ago. Mother did not blink and look away, like all humans did, Mother held her gaze. But she didn't challenge the white dinosaur, she showed respect, as if they were both creatures of power here. It held the Indominus spell-bound. "You need to calm down now." Mother told her. "It's going to be okay… take it easy… easy… easy…"

Mother's words gradually grew softer, soothing, and her footsteps were deliberately slow as she approached inch by inch. Her hands were held up and in the air and reaching towards the Indominus, showing no aggression as she calmly approached. Her body language made it clear that she was playing this by ear, that if the Indominus didn't want her to come near, then she would back away. But the Indominus was too confused by everything. She didn't understand why Mother was here – why she left in the first place, for that matter – or what she was supposed to do now. Existing had been simpler when she had nothing but hate and anger coursing through her, giving her sustenance and life where her pitiful existence would have allowed her to rot otherwise. In her confusion the anger had dissipated slightly, though it was still there, but it left her unknowing of what to do now, and that frustrated her.

And then, Mother made a noise. It wasn't talking, it was more of a rumble, as the Indominus could feel the vibrations coming from Mother's chest. The tone was more melodious and kept changing its note. It took her a moment to realise that it was singing. Mother was singing. And then with this realisation, a memory clicked into place, and the Indominus felt like she could melt into the ground with the emotions that surged through her. It was _THE_ song! Mother's song, the sweet song she had sung to her when she'd been a hatchling, lulling her to sleep.

And the Indominus felt something inside of her that she hadn't felt in a very long time, and thought she never would again. In fact, she'd actually forgotten what it was. _Happiness._ Mother's song made her want to give in to the hurt that surfaced through her again, but at the same time it lifted it away and replaced it with a burning sweet joy that couldn't be compared.

The Indominus suddenly didn't want this to be a dream. If it were real, then Mother was here with her, and if it was a dream, then she never wanted to awaken. She'd gladly rot away and die just to prolong this dream, just to make the hurt go away. She took a step gingerly in Mother's direction, claws twitching as she wanted to touch this piece of happiness that had lifted her from – **(*)**

The wind suddenly shifted around them, whipping about as a horrid and loud sound filled the air. A shadow shot over the clearing, and the Indominus looked up at the sky, shifting from foot to foot in agitation as her body quivered at the thought of a threat. The loud chopping noises were constant and unnatural, leading her to believe it to be something of the human's making. But the noises were loud and hurt her sensitive ears, and she curled her lips as she growled, the anger returning full force as the peace was disturbed.

A human metal construct shot overhead, roaring loudly as it went through the air. It had a circular front body, and a long thin tail, several arms above it rotated at such a fast rate they were a blur and more than likely the source of the dreadful noise. With a blink of her eyes, her vision shifted and she saw the world in vastly different colours as she sought the heat of life. And as she had suspected, the metal-flying-machine housed three humans, she could see their heat blooming with the beat of their disgusting hearts. The Indominus gave a loud roar, brandishing her claws to challenge the filthy pests that dared to face her.

"No!" Cried a voice, and the Indominus snapped her jaws, having forgotten that Mother was there. Mother's eyes were filled with fear and the Indominus cocked her head at why Mother should be so afraid. Looking between the Indominus and the metal-flying-machine, Mother seemed torn as she hesitated for a moment, deciding upon something. But finally, she set her jaw and spoke. "Go! Get out of here! Run!" She screeched.

The Indominus chirped, surprised at the order, for why would Mother want her to run? She was not a coward! She wouldn't back down from any fight! But then the shadow returned as the metal-flying-machine swooped around and returned, heading right towards them. Hearing Mother continuing to order her to leave, and sensing danger, he voices in her head whispering a thousand different things, the Indominus backed up several steps, her stride getting wider and faster, until finally she turned and ran as the metal-flying-machine came barrelling through the air after her.

Suddenly, a loud ' _BANG! BANG! BANG!'_ repeatedly filled the air, so loud that the Indominus shrieked in alarm as the sounds like thunder made her panic. She heard the impact against the ground behind her, and heard branches shatter and the ground explode as it sprayed dirt into the air. It followed her, quickly catching up to her ankles, and the Indominus instinctively knew that what the metal-flying-machine shot at her was deadly. Growling, she knew she would more than happily give the humans the fight they were looking for.

Picking up her pace, she swerved in an out amongst the trees, hoping that they would offer her some cover. The voices in her head were conflicted on how she should fight, but they agreed at least that she couldn't fight something in the air. She had to at least ground it or scare it off. Back at her prison-paddock, annoying birds had always flown away when she threw something at them… Her red-gold eyes searched her surroundings, looking for something that could be of use. The fight was a song in her veins, and she relished it, as if she'd been born to fight and the challenge the out-of-reach flying-machine made was very gratifying.

She saw something out of the corner of her air, and quickly turned as she ran full speed at a ninety-degree angle. The metal-flying-machine had to stop and slowly turn in order to position itself to shoot at her again. But that was all the time that the Indominus needed. She found what her eyes had seen: a rotting out hollow log. Quickly digging her claws into it, she heaved with a growl as she ripped the log from the soil that had sought to claim it, before turning and throwing the log through the air with a loud snarl. The log came dangerously close to hitting the metal-flying-machine, which swerved out of the way at the last minute to avoid collision. It had to go far out of the way as it desperately tried to right itself, and by the time that it was back to normal, the Indominus had already commanded her scales to change to match the colour of the forest around her, and made her blood run cold to keep herself undetected as she hid underneath the shadow of the trees.

Remaining absolutely perfectly still, she waited with the patience only a hunter could possess, until finally the metal-flying-machine flew away not long after. Only when she could no longer hear the droning of its flight, did she finally come out of hiding. With a snort, she quickly backtracked her way through the jungle, running quickly so that she would reduce the chance of being noticed. As she approached the clearing, she saw Mother look up in slight panic before turning to run. She didn't make it ten steps before the Indominus was bearing down on her and snatched her up off of the ground into her claws. She held her like she'd held the human-hunter at the creek, and she didn't worry about being forgiving with her grip, even as Mother struggled. The Indominus ignored her, holding her close against her chest as her deadly claws surrounded her.

She ran onwards into the jungle, her scales once again shifting to more match the colours of the forest instead of her stark white appearance that would stick out and be easy prey. Now that she was more difficult to see, she continued to run ahead, her and Mother, both melting into the wilderness of the jungle.


	4. Chapter 4

Joanne had never felt more frightened in all her life, and feared that every moment would be her last. The Indominus held her tightly in its grip, almost to the point of pain, and she was always aware of those long serrated claws that could dismember her with only a twitch. She was pressed close to the dinosaur's chest, even as the creature ran at an impressive steady speed. It wasn't the fastest she could go, but it was a trot that could be maintained over long distances.

The human tried to keep her breathing and her heart calm, to not panic, but it was becoming increasingly difficult. The longer that she was held prisoner with no in sign of there being any stop to give her the oppotunity, she became increasingly agitated. And she'd thought things were going so well…

When they'd finally found one another, Little White's responses had been… alarming. When she'd finally recognised Joanne, the professor had thought that perhaps Wu had been right, that the imprint was incredibly strong. The Indominus had seemed to halt in her attack and to calm, but then had shown some startling behaviour, from self-harming to grieving. Joanne had always been of the mind that you should never project human feelings onto animals. Animals felt these feelings, yes, but they felt them in different ways and one emotion could be easily mistaken for another. It was dangerous to think that an animal thought like you. But when she'd seen her Little White curled pathetically on the ground, whimpering and all but crying, Joanne's resolve had broken. At that moment, she'd been looking at her baby again, and she'd gone cautiously to her side in order to comfort her. She'd been most shocked when Little White responded, seeking comfort and gentle touches, the same as she always had as a hatchling.

Now, Joanne didn't know what to think. It was obviously clear that Little White was suffering from some form of mental upset: she was confused, lashing out, contradicting herself. From what the professor had seen on the cameras of the ACU unit, Little White felt nothing for humanity, and may even hate them, for her attacks on human beings had all been rather brutal. The dinosaur kept to no conforms of other theropod predators, for she didn't kill humans for food or to protect a territory; instead it felt... vengeful. And yet, Little White seemed to completely disregard that when she was with Joanne. In the presence of her mother, she was like a beaten Spaniel constantly returning, ever faithful, to its master begging for any kind of affection.

Joanne hoped with all her soul that her precious hatchling was not going through a mental-break. It would kill her to see it. But for now, the Indominus seemed focused, following in a task of some description and whether she liked it or not, Joanne was along for the ride. The Indominus hadn't forgotten she was there, as she kept glancing down out of the corner of her red eye to look at the human in her grasp. Each time she did, she held Joanne a little closer to her chest, until the woman could feel the drumming pump of the strong heart in the chest behind her. The action reminded Joanne of a child desperately holding onto a parent's hand when they didn't know what to do.

It was beginning to disturb Joanne how human Little White sometimes acted, even when she had been a baby. Joanne knew Henry hadn't gone that far, that was a line even _he_ would never cross. But it did make Joanne wonder at the dinosaur's intelligence. She had always been of the opinion that it was the height of human arrogance to ever assume that humans were the only intelligent, feeling creatures on the earth, the only beings in possession of a "soul". That simply was not true in her opinion. Animals had souls the same as humans. Despite the fact that Joanne was not religious, she still used terms like 'the soul' because she had nothing better to describe the life force in all creatures.

The sun was almost setting by the time they even slowed. The Indominus began to lessen her pace until she came to a complete stop, the terrain was become a little more rocky, and if Joanne had to guess, she would've thought they'd been heading east. The white dinosaur lifted its head higher, looking around with a peculiar tilt of its head. Joanne spotted how the pupils thinned to mere slits, the jaws shivering as the spines on her neck became a little stiffer.

And then they were moving again, working their way in a particular direction, as if they were headed straight towards something. Joanne had absolutely no idea where she was or how she would be able to call for help. Although she wanted to help Little White, she also knew that if her mental state was so volatile, then it would put the human in great danger. Joanne didn't know when she would switch from calm to agitated, and she needed to find a way to get Little White in a calmer environment. Maybe if she did then she might be able to help her.

They eventually came onto a plateau, and Joanne felt her breath hitch at the sight before her.

The power plant.

Jurassic World had learned its lesson from the original Jurassic Park. Most of the fences were built with physical barriers to keep the dinosaurs inside their enclosures, and they didn't leave the electrical fences to mere generators. Instead, the park had its own power plant that was manned and monitored throughout the day, all year round. It was for the safety of everyone. But Little White had brought her here… why?

Looking up, Joanne saw that the Indominus was watching the power plant with that strange look of hers again. Was she using her thermal vision? Had the heat and electricity supplied by the power-plant drawn her here? It was plausible. Though, if they were here at the power-plant, Joanne knew that they were only a mile or more from the fences that cut off the restricted area from the main theme park. That was not good. Joanne hoped that Claire had actually listened to Grady and evacuated the island, or at least they were in the process of doing so. She didn't want to think about what would happen if Little White managed to find herself in the resort.

Without warning, the Indominus released her, and Joanne gasped as she fell to the ground. Instead of trying to keep her footing, Joanne knew enough to buckle her legs so that as they bent they absorbed the impact. It hurt like hell, but she grit her teeth. No loud noises, she didn't know if it would agitate the dinosaur next to her. Joanne froze when she felt a snout lined with many serrated teeth press against her back, felt the puff of air from large nostrils throw her hair into disarray.

Little White chittered, roughly nudging Joanne until the woman was forced to turn and face her. Those red-gold eyes pierced into Joanne's heart, for they were filled with determination, confusion, but also that blind trust she'd had when she'd been a baby. Indeed, she was acting like she'd just come out of the egg. She kept purring and rubbing her face closer to Joanne, who was almost completely pushed over, trying to find all of her strength just to keep herself upright. Little White placed her claws on the ground as she hunkered down, her tongue darting out to wash Joanne's neck in stinking saliva. The woman scoffed both in amusement and disgust. She couldn't help herself as her hands came up to gently push and stroke the tough white scales of that beloved face. For a moment it seemed as if no time at all had passed since they were back in the nursery.

"Alright now," she said, her lips twitching into a smile. "Come on, you big baby, what's this for?"

White didn't seem to understand the words, but responded to the affectionate playfulness in them, huffing her breath as her tail swayed back and forth amongst the branches of the trees. She pressed herself closer to Joanne, who in turn tried to push her down in a kind of play. Joanne felt a spark of hope in her chest at this wonderful behaviour, for perhaps her big baby wasn't so far gone after all, perhaps she could be helped!

However, Joanne began to regret her decision to entertain this game, when White's pushes turned to shoves as the play became just a little rougher. It wasn't the dinosaur's fault, for she didn't understand the concept of having too much strength for her mother-figure to handle. Joanne fought the urge to hiss in pain when that hard snout bumped into her with bruising force, the teeth that were sticking out of the crooked mouth jabbing into her ribs. When she felt an ever so soft nip, she knew things needed to calm down.

Moving quickly she sprang up from her crouched position and sprinted the two or three steps around White's massive head before the dinosaur could even grunt in surprise. Acting on impulse, and praying to Darwin himself that this would work, Joanne hastily grabbed at the looser scales at White's neck with both hands. Before the dinosaur could do anything, she twisted the flesh and she squeezed it like a pinch.

White yowled at the familiar jab of pain and instantly reared back, wrenching herself out of Joanne's hold. The Indominus snarled, rounding on her mother with a furious curl of her lip and Joanne shook in her boots, but did her best to suppress the fear as she matched the stare of the dinosaur.

"No, White." The professor said firmly, with that same commanding tone as she had when the hatchlings had been babies. "No."

It took a second longer then Joanne would have liked, but eventually the hostility yielded, and the dinosaur whimpered softly as she lowered herself to the ground. She pressed her belly into the rocky plateau, making herself as small as possible as she submitted. Another whine came out of her high-pitched throat, and she scooted closer to her mother, breath coming out in panting gasps as she begged for forgiveness. Joanne let her grovel for a moment longer, before coming towards her.

"Hush…" she whispered soothingly. She knelt in front of her big baby, running her hands over the scales again. "It's alright… I'm here…"

Her soothing voice hid her nerves. She knew that she couldn't risk doing that move again. The pinch and twist was used to scold naughty pups by clearly stronger adult wolves. It was fine to so when the dinosaur had been smaller, not as strong as her, and obviously a subordinate in the hierarchy. But her Little White wasn't so little any more, and the dinosaur knew it. That long second of defiance, Joanne had seen the temptation to fight for the right to be alpha, to assert her dominance. It was only through loyalty and want of Joanne's affection that she submitted. Joanne shivered as she realised that if she tried to pull that move again, the Indominus might very well fight her for it.

White pressed the end of her snout against Joanne's belly, as if she were trying to hide herself from view and be alone with her mother's heartbeat. It was exactly what she used to do as a hatchling. Joanne smiled at the fond memories, and continued to hug and shower her big baby in affection. It was most surprising to her how White thirsted for comfort, for touch. Most animals could only handle so much, but White wanted it to never stop, as if she were afraid that this might be her last chance to have it. Could she really have been so traumatised by the isolation? Joanne pressed herself closer, knowing that she never wanted her dinosaur to ever go through that again.

The loud blare of a warning alarm sounded, breaking the moment as White growled as she snapped her head away from Joanne, and they both looked out towards the power-plant they had both forgotten was there. At first, Joanne feared that someone had spotted them, but when she heard no shouts or roaring engines or gunfire, she assumed it was just a noise for the day team to come off duty in favour of the night team, or something trivial like that.

When she looked back at White, she saw that the playful and affectionate hatchling was gone, and in its place was a predator with a ruthless mind. An adult was standing before her, and Joanne knew she needed to tread careful ground.

The jaws opened and slowly clamped around her, and Joanne tried to stop herself from hyperventilating as she felt the sharp teeth dig into her body though they didn't break the skin. Her heart was pounding in her ears, and she already felt herself be drenched in sweat. She knew that any fearful noises or acts of distress might trigger a predator's instinct, and so she kept herself motionless as White picked her up and swung her round back towards the trees.

She was deposited roughly to the ground as White dumped her in the middle of the clutch of tree roots that were almost three feet high. Joanne groaned as she sat herself up, knowing she was going to be bruised black and blue all over, come the morning. She looked up to find the Indominus glaring at her with a steady command in her stare. The dinosaur growled loudly, ending with a sharp snort. Then she turned away and began to walk away towards the power-plant. Joanne needed no translation for that, it was very clear what that meant: _stay here._

For a brief, fleeting moment, Joanne wondered if she should obey that order. It was seriously inconsiderate for her health to make a dinosaur angry with her, and perhaps it would be better to stay safe here.

But she couldn't. White was almost definitely going to the power-plant, and Joanne knew she had to find a way to get the blissfully unaware people out of there. So she waited until she could no longer hear or feel the tremors of the giant's footsteps, before she quickly picked herself up and ran towards the power-plant.

She ran through the thick jungle, almost tripping and sliding down the steep muddy hill in the process. Her ankles would've surely broken if she'd fallen, but by luck she only just managed to keep her balance. As she approached the complex, she knew she couldn't shout, White might hear her and come looking. So as she bounded up to the chain-link fence, she slammed her body against it when she didn't slow quick enough, and began to rattle it, trying to get someone's attention.

"Hey!" She hissed out as loud as she dared. Looking about crazily, she continued to call and rattle the fence, even checking the gate, though finding it locked from the inside. With every second that ticked by, she could feel her nerves building until she thought she would vomit. It was as if every shadow in the jungle behind her contained a reptilian eye glaring at her turned back. Or her mind imagined the screams of dying workers and she unable to get to them.

Joanne jumped and nearly shrieked when she someone suddenly popped his head around the corner, drawn by her quiet commotion and saw her. Her eyes widened and she thought she might collapse with relief, though a new burden forced itself on her as she realised she still had to convince everyone to evacuate.

"Hey! You! Please, let me in!"

"Dear God… lady, are you alright?" The man came up to the fence, blinking his eyes wide in shock.

Joanne grimaced, she must look like quite a sight with her clothes dirtied, her hair a mess, and having just come out of the jungle. "Yeah, I'm fine. You need to let me in!"

The worker didn't even hesitate to open the gate and let her into the compound. Her eyes were alight with worry as he steadied her and looked her over. "Christ, lady, what are you doing out here? Are you lost?"

"No, I-"

"Hey, Berny!" The man shouted over his shoulder to someone off in the distance. "Get the med-kit and call control! We got a lost tourist here!"

"I'm not-"

"Out here?" Called a gruff voice from further off.

"Yeah! She's -"

"Listen to me!" Joanne grasped onto his arms with tightly clenched hands, her heart suddenly pounding, every instinct inside her telling her to hurry. "We need to leave – now! We need to evacuate the whole complex. You're all in danger!"

"What is it? A bomb?" the worker gaped.

"What? No!" Joanne frowned and shook her head. Honestly, at this moment, a bomb seemed trivial. "There's a dinosaur on the loose, she's gotten out of her containment pen, you're all in danger!"

"Control sent out a Code-19…" the worker mumbled. "But we didn't –"

"Are you not listening to me?!" she stressed with a shrill voice. "We need to get people out of here!"

"We can't just abandon the station, the whole park runs on–"

"If you don't you'll–"

" _Aaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrggggggghhhhhhhh!_ " A scream tore across their conversation, and Joanne felt her blood run cold as both she and the worker turned to where the noise was coming from.

"What the…" the man beside her whispered to himself, though he as well had gone pale. His eyes went wide when he saw a group of his fellow workmen coming running out from around the corner, screaming and yelling.

"Run for your life!"

"Asset loose!"

And right behind them, came the Indominus, roaring as she brandished her claws, a murderous look in her eyes as she chased after the humans. Joanne spotted how there was a small graze on the dinosaur's arm, surely the thing that had set her off. And now, following the fleeing humans, she was coming right towards Joanne and the others.

"Run… _run!"_ she shrieked before she turned on her heel and ran.

Joanne had no idea where she was going, and so followed the crowd as they ran as fast as they could. They dodged around the pipes and towers and other conductors that hummed with the electricity they generated. As they all turned a corner, Joanne spotted group of staff jeeps parked beside the gate. Her years of keeping fit in the wild allowed the professor to put on an extra burst of speed to reach one of the vehicles. There were only three, one was already pulling out heavily filled with people. The second one was already beginning to be filled with people.

She could feel the fast and heavy steps of the Indominus behind her and quickly gaining. The adrenaline coursing through her veins made Joanne feel hot beneath her top, and she hardly noticed how the muscles in her legs were burning from the speed. She raced up to the door of the vehicle, but just as another reached it as well. She felt a heavy body slam into her as someone tried to beat her to the door, and the force of it jarred her bones and sent her flying.

Hitting the gravelled ground, Joanne felt her skin tear on the tiny stones and hissed in pain. She felt dizzy for a moment, and would've gotten back up with a snarl at the fiend who dared to knock her down. The animal in her refused to be pushed around like this.

But then a quickly glance up, and the professor gasped as she realised that the Indominus was upon her. Without seeming to even think of the command, Joanne curled into a ball with her arms over her head. Some part of her brain that still contained logic knew that if she played dead, then she was less likely to draw attention to herself. From her research of Rexy and the mated pair on Isla Sorna, she knew the T-Rex was an opportunistic predator, meaning it both hunted and scavenged. So being dead might not save her if the Indominus didn't mind eating carrion. But Joanne was hoping that the snake DNA inside White was strong enough that she preferred fresh kills. Only very few snake species outside of captivity ate carcasses they themselves didn't kill, preferring the body still warm.

Joanne heard the screams of men, the tearing of metal, the roar of a dinosaur, and then the agonising sounds of the dying and the wet tearing and crushing of flesh. A shiver raced up her body, her stomach flipping as she fought to keep her last meal down her throat. She tried to block it out, to ignore it all, to concentrate on simply staying still, to save herself. It made her feel like a coward to do it, it made tears spring to her eyes as she heard three or four lives come to a swift end and she did nothing to stop it. But she'd spent too long in the wild, and so knew the rules of survival: that playing a hero never ended in glory, only a premature death.

Focusing her mind so intensely on anything around her, on just keeping still, Joanne was unaware that the horrific noises had stopped for several moments. The silence that hung over her like an accusing judge was almost unbearable. Then, she heard the heavy stamping footfalls… and a soft whine.

Joanne continued to stay still, not knowing what White's reaction would be. Would the Indominus be angry? Was it safer to play dead? Would White become confused by her keeping so still? Was she better off asserting her dominance over the situation?

Another soft rumble filled the air, and Joanne recoiled when the foul, hot breath washed over her. She almost gagged at the stench of fresh blood that coated the teeth in front of her. White nudged her mother curiously, and Joanne placed a hand on her nose to bat her away as she rolled away from that awful smell. She desperately kept control of her stomach, knowing that any sign of weakness might trigger White's instinct to assert her own dominance.

White snorted when she realised her mother was fine, and turned to walk away. Joanne watched the dinosaur as she strode curiously towards the circuit breakers and the transformers. White seemed entranced by the glow and the hum of electricity that was generated in the air around them. She tilted her head curiously, in a very bird-like way. She sniffed it and paced a little to the side, but didn't take her eyes off of the powerful construction before her. There was no way she could know or understand what any of this technology was, she was simply curious about what this new thing was. Joanne felt her stomach turn to ice with dread.

Seeming to grow more bold, White slowly inched herself towards the transformers. Her steps were cautious but not fearful, and the spines along her neck and arms were twitching. Reaching out with her arms, her long claws stretched to touch at the man-made contraption. Joanne felt the dread turn to fear as her eyes widened. She scrambled to her feet, boots skidding through the gravelled ground.

"No! Stop! White–No!" she shouted, worry etched into her voice.

White snapped her head around to look at her mother when she heard the sharp tone, but her claws halted in their progress. Joanne stood there frozen, her heart pounding as she tried to plead with whatever forces existed that White come away from the transformers. But White merely growled softly, before turning back to her task. Before Joanne could shout again, the dinosaur's claws grazed the towers of disks that sat on top of the transformer.

There was a loud crack, like that of thunder, and a brilliant flash of light. Joanne instinctively leapt back and held up an arm. A second later she heard a scream of pain and fury. She looked up to see White hunched over a hundred yards away from the transformer, holding her arm to her chest as it still twitched and jerked from the electrical shock. The professor's eyes quickly scanned the dinosaur for injuries, but all she could see was a burn-like mark on the Indominus's arm. Surely such voltage as contained in those transformers would've killed her! The dinosaur seemed deeply unsettled but not in any life threatening state. The labs must've made her extremely resilient. Joanne had seen her withstand the shock-guns carried by the ACU, shrugging off each shock as if it were nothing, but this was something else.

White's eyes clouded over with unmistakable rage. She bared her teeth and hissed at the thing that dared harm her. Her quills stood on end, and she raised herself to her full height, tail lashing, stance wide, fury in every fibre of her being. Joanne shrunk back from such a display of obvious aggression.

With an ear-splitting roar, White turned around and with a swipe of her claws picked up a metal containment shed. She tore it free of its foundations with a loud screech of metal and a flutter of sparks. Surprisingly, the shed itself managed to stay somewhat in shape. Turning back around, the Indominus rounded back to her non-living enemy. Joanne might have been astounded at the dinosaur's use of tools (irrefutable evidence of her intelligence), had she not realised what was about to happen and horror came over her.

"NO!" she shouted, but too late.

The Indominus threw the shed at the transformer, where it shattered upon contact with it.

Joanne dove for the floor as an explosion rocketed through the air. A blinding flash of white light blasted away the visual sense, followed by a deafening boom like the roar of a fire. Joanne felt the force of the blast try to move her, even from where she lay huddled on the ground. Electricity crackled through the air, hissing and spitting. Joanne peaked out in time to see the Indominus stamping about, her snarls of fear drowned out by the electrical storm she had just unleashed, her eyes wide with terror. There was a second of respite as the electricity fiddled along the remains of the metal shed, before completely detonating.

The second explosion was bigger than the first. White attempted to come towards her mother, and would've trampled her, she was in such a state. But then they both heard a noise, and glanced up in time to see one of the towers holding up the main powerlines was about to fall, the explosion having dislodged it from its precarious perch. It fell as if in slow motion with a loud groan. The Indominus and the human both dodged in separate directions as the huge metal construction came tumbling down.

Frightened by the explosions, the loud noises, the bright lights and the falling environment, the Indominus did as instinct demanded, and fled. She trampled the fencing to the compound and retreated into the jungle, yowling and calling out for her mother, a reflex to summon help. Joanne wanted to call out to her, for her heart broke hearing her big baby calling for her the same as a child living out a nightmare. But before she could, she heard another groan as the second tower began to fall.

Joanne jumped to her feet and sprinted out of the way, and was afforded some time when the powerlines caught on the tower, suspending it for a moment, before gravity took hold of it, and the powerlines were ripped from their sockets. The tower crashed into the ground, but Joanne was safely out of the way at that point. It took her a moment too long to realise that all was now too quiet. She could no longer hear the hum of the electric. The power was off.

Looking out onto the horizon, Joanne could see the shadows of the theme-park in the distance, the twinkling lights that should've been there were now extinguished. Only moments later, Joanne felt her gut convulse with horror as she heard the terrified screams of humans floating to her on the wind.

An untold horror had just been unleashed on them.

Most of the more dangerous animals in Jurassic World, such as the T-Rex, the Mosasaur and the Pteranodons, had physical reinforced barriers in order to keep them in their enclosures for public safety. However, the board at Jurassic World had wanted to be more effiecient with barriers, and allow guests to view the attractions with ease, and so the electric and invisible fences had been designed… Which had now gone off.

Joanne knew of several dinosaurs that had been considered "low maintenance" and had been given the invisible fences, and would now create untold horror as they hunted through the visitors.

As the screams continued to float to Joanne's ears, she realised that she was quite alone now. White was nowhere to be seen, and she could be anywhere. There was only one gas-car left. Joanne ran towards it.


	5. Chapter 5

Joanne gunned the car down the road. The engine roared but she didn't care. Too many thoughts were burning through her mind.

Little White was more intelligent than anyone gave her credit for, even Joanne. Forget rivalling intelligence of primates, like the raptors. No, this rivalled humans in intellect, initiative, planning, tools. If it weren't for the dinosaur's clearly delicate mental state, it would've been much clearer, as well as much more focused and therefore deadly. But it had been there, right from the beginning, and Joanne kicked herself for not recognising it sooner. She had been chosen as White's handler, she should've understood even then. But she hadn't, perhaps it was human arrogance, perhaps it was ignorance.

White displayed intelligence, she displayed emotions, and she was clearly undergoing severe mental stress. Each of these were a bad combination on their own, together they were a recipe for disaster. And there was precious time left.

But Joanne needed answers. And she knew exactly who to go to.

The power for the park was down. The largest and most dangerous habitats had reinforced physical barriers to keep the animals in. But the lesser threats would now be free to roam. Joanne hoped that Claire and the other members of the Park's Board managed to get the resort evacuated, otherwise it would be chaos.

Either way, the professor wasn't taking any chances. She drove the vehicle to its top speed as she raced into the now open gates and raced through the park. No animal that happened to be near her would go near a noise like her engine, and even if they did the speed would make sure they never caught her. The only thing that might, would be a raptor, and they were safely locked away.

As she came through the resort onto Main Street, she realised how bad things had become already. Shop windows had been destroyed, carts had been turned over and their produce littered the street. She saw dozens of ACU guards everywhere. They were escorting people through the park at a break-neck pace. Some of these people were even bleeding. The guards looked up as she drove past, some even shouted at her, all of them with faces of confusion and panic.

Joanne was so distracted by everything that was going on, she almost ran-over a pachycephalosaurus as it came barrelling out of an alleyway. She slammed on the brakes and swerved to avoid it. The animal barked at her, eyes wild and rolling as it tried to charge her but missed. When Joanne finally got her vehicle under control she looked in the rear-view mirror. If the Pachy's and other herbivores were loose they would account for the damage done, but not the injuries she'd seen on those people.

She heard a shriek and her eyes snapped to the left and she saw the real problem.

A dilophosaurus ran out onto Main Street. Its frills shot out as it screeched again. Blood was already dripping from its mouth. Its yellow eyes focused on the car as Joanne came shooting towards it. The blood of the professor ran cold as she swerved to avoid hitting the animal and its spat venom.

Her heart was pounding. The dilos were loose and it might take all of the remaining ACU to combat them. How had everything gone to hell so fast?

She screeched the jeep to a halt outside of the John Hammond building at the top of Main Street. A quick look at the fuel gauge told her that she had three quarters of a tank of fuel left. Quickly deciding that she might need a fast get-away, Joanne left the car running and bolted out of it and into the building.

She ran down towards the labs. No one stopped her. It disgusted her when she saw them completely deserted of not just people, but equipment. It would seem that _they_ wasted no time in evacuating when shit had hit the fan.

Joanne burst open the doors to Henry Wu's office and found the professor bent over a briefcase on his desk. He looked up sharply at the woman, his brows furrowed in shock. She knew she probably looked a right state with her hair a mess and her clothes torn, dirty and bloodied. But right now, she really didn't care.

"Miss Teerly?" Wu asked as if to clarify that it was her. "Why are you–"

Joanne's punch landed squarely on his nose.

Wu crumpled to his knees, he held his face in his hands, blood dripping through his fingers. Joanne hissed and shook her hand. She'd broken something, she just _knew_ it.

"You," she snarled through her pain and anger down at the scientist in front of her, "are going to tell me everything you did to her."

Wu spat blood onto his pristine white floor. "I don't know what you're–"

Joanne yanked him up by his tie and brought him up face to face with her. "I hear one more word of bullshit, I'll grind your balls into fossilised powder. Now, tell me everything about her. What you did, what you made her from, who gave the order and why."

"If I tell you," Wu said slowly, "will you please get your hands off of me?"

Joanne stared hard at him for what felt like hours. Her eyes bore into his with a furious intensity. Then she let him go, one slow finger at a time, and pushed him back with a shove for emphasis. Henry smoothed out his now bloodstained shirt and wiped his nose, still one for propriety, it seemed.

"The order came from higher up the ranks. Ingen board officials. They wanted to experiment, see what I could cook up."

"How?"

"They gave me a list of traits that they wanted the animal to possess. Camouflage, intelligence, control of body heat, etc. It took me two years just to come up with the right combination that would result in a viable specimen."

"For what purpose?"

"I can't say."

Joanne launched back at Henry until her face was inches away from his. She bared her teeth like a wolf and hissed. "For _what_ purpose?!"

"If I tell you, I'm a dead man."

"Look around you, Wu!" she shouted and threw her arm out at the empty building around them. "This entire park has gone to hell – if you don't tell me, you're a dead man anyway!"

The scientist seemed to think over her words in silence. Then, finally, he spoke. "Biological weaponry. Military use."

Joanne slumped, she slapped a hand over her forehead. No way could her luck be that bad. "Oh… shit…"

"Not for her specifically."

"What do you mean?"

"This Indominus was just the prototype. Ideally, the correct specimens would be the size of raptors. This one was the… _practice_ run, as it were. I put the genes into her DNA, but we had no way of knowing if they would take effect or become dormant. Everyone would win: Massrani would get his attraction, and I would get the green-light from the board to make smaller versions."

"Do you people even think?" Joanne seethed. "She can't be controlled! She's on the verge of a mental breakdown! Her intelligence and maliciousness exceeds any kind of animal behaviour I've ever seen!"

Wu was oddly silent. He wouldn't look at her in the eye. Joanne took a step back, stunned. Surely he couldn't be serious?! But his continued guilty silence screamed the answers at her. Her jaw fell open, her breath shuddered in terror at the implications.

"No… you didn't…"

Henry still wouldn't look at her, but his tone was begrudging, as if he were still trying to explain away his guilt. "It was suggested later in development that I… _enhance_ her intelligence level by–"

Joanne punched with her left this time into his jaw. He staggered back and Joanne attempted to hold back a scream as she felt something break in _that_ hand as well.

"Damn you!" she screamed in the doctor's face. "You fucking bastard! Damn you all!"

She kicked him. Just because she could. She was _that_ angry and _that_ physically exhausted that her self-control vanished. The professor paced back and forth, unable to keep still. The fury made her arm vibrate, her aching knuckles felt like they would burst as she clenched them at her sides. She felt like a caged animal, as furious as White must've been. That thought was only fuel for the fire.

"Do you have any idea about what you've done?! You've put so many lives at risk because you couldn't say 'no'!"

"It wasn't supposed to end this way!" Wu snapped back when he straightened himself again.

"But it has! And now that animal is suffering and this whole park is going down in flames – because of you!"

"You don't understand – If I didn't do it, someone else would have."

"I don't care." She grabbed the front of his shirt and pulled him close into her personal space. Her lip peeled back over her teeth as her voice dropped to the most dangerous growl she could conjure. "Right now, I need to try and fix this mess you've made. And once this is over, I'm gonna make sure you go away for the rest of your life!"

She let him go and he staggered back, his eyes wide with panic. "No! I'll give you the name of the one who told me–"

"And, if anything happens to White because of your actions… I'll be coming for your head."

"Joanne!" he tried to shout over her. "Hoskins… it was Hoskins…"

Rage made it hard for Joanne to breathe. She made a point of openly doing nothing to confirm or discontinue her threat. She simply turned around and left. Wu cursed under his breath behind her, but she ignored him as best she could.

The hallway was long and isolated, every noise seemed to echo all around her. Joanne stormed down it, determined to get back outside and find Hoskins. She was going to ruin him for what he'd done here.

Footsteps echoed around her. Running footsteps, footsteps that grew louder the closer they came. Joanne's heart fluttered. She tried not to let her fear consume her. If an animal had gotten in and it smelt her terror, it would zero in on her like a guided missile. She kept her own feet silent as she tried to hurry along. Because of the echoes she had no idea if the noise was coming in front of her or behind. But she had no choice, she couldn't stay out in this exposed area. She rounded the corner and tried to find –

"Ah!"

"Ah!"

Hands clamped on her arms to prevent her from falling back. She struggled, but then saw the face of the person in front of her.

"Joanne?" that voice like chocolate asked. His eyes looked down at her, completely bewildered.

She gaped in astonishment. "Barry?"

"Thank God! You're alive!" the huge Frenchman pulled her into his arms and embraced her tightly against his chest. Joanne was taken so completely off guard that she didn't even have time to respond before he was pulling her back to look at her suspiciously. "What're you doing here?"

Once she got over the shock, Joanne allowed herself to feel relieved, and even slightly happy to him. Barry had been the one to welcome her back to Jurassic World a few weeks ago. He'd been a good friend and had even re-awoken her interest in dating, briefly. It was good to see him alive and well after so much destruction and chaos. And from the looks of it, he seemed relieved to see her as well.

"Had business to take care of." She shrugged and began to walk down the hall back towards the exit again. Barry shadowed her every step, always keeping up with her stride. "I need to find someone called Hoskins. You know him?"

"Unfortunately." He scowled. "He's over at the raptor enclosure. He wants to use them to hunt the Indominus."

Joanne jarred to a stop and turned on Barry. "That can't be allowed to happen! We have to stop them!"

Now it was his turn to gape at her. "Joanne?!"

"Take me there! Barry, please! We have to save her!"

"No! I am getting you on the next ferry out of here."

"Barry, if you even attempt to put me on that boat, I'll tear you a new asshole and force you at gunpoint to take me to where I want to go." After her angry tirade had subsided, she realised that it didn't make a good impression of her behaviour. So as an afterthought, she added in a softer tone: "Please."

Barry shook his head, drawing in a long breath. He released it in a rush through his nose and fixed her with a glare. He turned away from her and strolled ahead, muttering under his breath, "You're as bad as the raptors."

"Thank you!" she smiled, relieved. "I owe you one!"

"You owe me two." He gave her a pointed look. Joanne tilted her head in confusion. "You never called me back for a second date."

* * *

The arrived at the raptor paddock to a flurry of activity. Joanne spotted a horde of heavily armed and equipped mercenaries all clad in black and body armour. The guns they were carrying Joanne didn't recognise, but she did spot several RPG's. Her heart plummeted with shock and dread. Surely they weren't thinking of using them on Little White?!

She and Barry hopped out of the car the moment the engine was shut off. They looked around but no one seemed to pay attention to them. Well, at least Barry, whom they must've known worked with the animals here. For Joanne they tried to hide their suspicious stares.

"What's going on here?" Joanne asked, sticking close to Barry's side.

"I don't know…" he murmured.

"I thought you said Hoskins wanted to use the raptors."

"He's been hinting at it all day. But Owen wouldn't…" he trailed off, but the silence was enough.

It didn't take them long to find the man they were looking for. Owen Grady stood beside his motorcycle, a small rifle strapped to his back. Behind him were four tall pens that looked to be designed similar to racehorse gates. The metal doors shook and the devilish screeches of raptors pierced Joanne's eardrums. She shuddered.

"Owen!" Barry shouted and rushed over to the man. Owen looked up and a relieved smile broke across his face.

"Barry, glad you could make it." Then, Owen's eyes found Joanne and he frowned. "Miss Teerly? Last we heard you were gone–"

Joanne cut him off quickly. "I know. Where's a man named Hoskins?"

"He just left. Went back with Claire and her boys. Wanted to oversee the mission from the Control Room."

Barry's eyes widened and he demanded, "You are not seriously considering this?!"

"Masrani wouldn't allow this!" Joanne protested loudly.

"Masrani's got no choice. He tried the chopper and it didn't work. The board's pushing him to end this - now."

Barry shook his head, clearly distressed. "But the girls have never been out of containment."

"I've got no choice, Barry…"

"You can't!" Joanne shouted.

"I have to! Hoskins made it clear that he's using the raptors with or without my permission. I don't own these animals, so I can't stop him."

"I can't let you do this to her!"

"Look around you, Joanne!" Owen shouted right back at her. He swept his arm in a broad circle at the general situation around them. "She's killed people, she's put everyone in this park at risk, you honestly think she's worth saving?"

"You defended her! Back in the Control Room, you were with me when we said that none of this was her fault. She's confused."

"Yes, she is. But I have to keep my priorities straight, I can't morally choose her over human civilian lives. I need to have rational judgement – something you clearly don't have! That's why you were taken off the project in the first place!"

"Owen!" Barry barked. "That's enough."

"Look…" Owen sighed and took a step closer to Joanne, his voice dropping to a soft murmur. "If it were any one of my girls out there, I'd be in the same boat as you. But I have to do what is right."

Joanne gazed back at him, her eyes pleading with him. "At least let me try to settle this peacefully."

"That's not an option."

"I got through to her."

Owen blinked in shock. "You what?"

"Out in the jungle. I managed to find her, and she calmed. If we can corner her, I'm sure I can get her to calm down long enough for someone to tranquilise her. Surely attempting to rehabilitate her will give us the redemption from all the crimes we've done to her?"

"And what if you're wrong?"

"If she kills me, then I won't be here to stop you shooting her, now will I?"

Owen was silent for a long moment. He studied Joanne, biting his cheek between his teeth. That gaze was so intense that Joanne could do nothing but openly meet it. The animal in her refused to lower her gaze, to submit. Whatever it was Owen seemed to be looking for, he must've found it, for he finally nodded.

"Alright. We'll play it your way. For now."

Joanne sighed. "Thank you, Owen."

Owen nodded to her again and quickly climbed onto his bike. Joanne and Barry made their way back to the car. Once they were strapped in and in line with the rest of the convoy, she saw Barry glance over at her, his expression was worried.

"Joanne? Are you sure about this?"

She reached over and took his hand where it rested on the gearstick. She squeezed his fingers and whispered: "No."

* * *

 _She'd_ wandered the jungles for hours. Her claws still trembled every now and then from nerves. It was dark out here, and whilst she could see clearly about her environment around her, it still spooked her. The foliage was both a comfort and a frightening monster, every time it brushed along her flanks she would half relax and half jump. It reminded her too much of the dark and tight space from when she'd been a hatchling, when she'd lost Mother.

And now Mother was gone again. Had she been killed by that loud noise and fiery pain that had attacked her at that human structure? Had they merely been separated and Mother was even now looking for her? Had she been a dream all along?

The thoughts made her head hurt. The pain in her chest made her whimper. The shaking got worse.

It was far into the night when she heard it. A deep throaty rumble on the distant horizon that steadily grew louder. Above it, she could hear the distant calls and hunting shrieks of others. Their noises confused her. She recognised them, she understood them, their smells on the wind whispered things deep into her mind. They reminded her of things she'd never experienced, whispers telling her that she should join the hunt, to assert her dominance. It distracted her from her current troubles, and she was drawn closer to them like an insect to a flower.

In a glade, she waited, hidden by thick vines and foliage. Some part of her still knew to be aware of a threat. And that was when she saw them. They were small, perhaps as tall as humans, barely reaching the height of her knees. In that respect she was disappointed, and a whisper in her mind told her that they were intruders, prey, they needed to be killed. But another voice battled it, it recognised their sounds, got excited by their smells, wanted her to assert herself over them.

Then humans filed in through the bushes behind the newcomers. Each garbed in black, each holding their weapons that stung and burned and hurt. White's eyes narrowed as she hissed.

The newcomers must've heard her, for they barked at her, stood in front of her hiding place. They were taunting her, luring her to come out. Realising that she needed to get things under control, White wondered if she could somehow turn this to her advantage. She wouldn't run, they would only hunt her, and the newcomers would never respect her. A part of her whispered that she needed a pack, sisters to help her chase and hunt prey. A pack was supposed to stay together, to keep each other safe, to look after one another. That had been what Mother had done for her, hadn't it? And she'd felt safe and happy then, maybe if she started a new pack, she would feel that way again. The hurt inside her would go away.

Slowly, she came out to greet the smaller creatures that spoke to her. They barked and she chittered in response. She'd never spoken to others like this before. It confused and frustrated her to wonder how this could be possible. But the newcomers seemed to respond to her, they crooned right back at her.

Her confidence grew, a malicious excitement, like the feeling just before the chase in a hunt, rose through her. Emotion ebbed away, coldness replaced it. She snorted and directed her gaze onto the humans behind the newcomers. They turned around and directed their hisses onto them as well. All she needed to do was give the word, and the kill would be theirs –

"Little-White!"

The Indominus startled at the sound of that voice. It snapped the shock and the confusion right back into her. She looked around and saw Mother off to the side. She'd managed to sneak around the threat-humans and had found her. Relief flooded her as she beheld the sight of her Mother. Why had she left again? Had she done something wrong? Had Mother punished her for it? Did that mean she was now forgiven? Mother would defend her from the threat, as she did when she was a hatchling, the Indominus just knew it.

With splayed talons she reached out for her Mother, crooning for her to join her new pack. Wouldn't Mother be so proud of her?

"Fire!" shouted a voice.

 _Bang-bang-bang-bang!_ Went the loud noises, so loud they hurt her ears. She felt the sting in her skin and scales as they tried to hurt her. Mother fell to the ground and covered her head to try to avoid the stinging-thunder-weapons.

The Indominus snarled for the attack to begin. Her pack screeched their response and dove into the battle. They tackled the humans and dodged into the bushes to avoid the gunfire. It soon turned chaotic and the humans began to scatter. The Indominus needed to do the rest. She roared and brandished her talons –

A human stood, something long mounted on his shoulder. It suddenly lit up with fire at its tail and shot towards her. White screeched at the sight of the flying-fire. She ducked out of the way at the last moment, and it hit the tree beside her.

An explosion of thunder and fire blasted in all directions. The ground shook, the fire seared her flesh, Light flooded her vision. She wobbled and fell to the ground.

She screamed.

* * *

Owen leapt back to avoid the man that fell with a raptor clawing at his front. It was Echo. He half shouted at his girl to get off, but the words died in his throat. He kept his gun up and ran back for the vehicles along with everyone else. Damn it! He'd known this would be a bad idea! Why did everything have to go to shit!

The worst part was, these were _his_ girls! They'd turned on them and now they were going to die from one stray bullet from the wrong person. Every step broke his heart.

He'd lost sight of Barry, and Joanne. He'd lost everyone. It had all become pure chaos. The radios were alive with jumbled shouts and screams. The chain of command was gone. And one by one those voices were going silent.

He could see the bike up ahead. He had to get back to Claire and the boys, they needed to get inside, someplace safe and fortify it until the next ferry arrived. This was now about collateral damage. He had to try and save as many as he could. Starting with them.

Blue erupted from the bushes and landed in the centre of his path. She shrieked at him.

Owen skidded to a halt. His heart began to hammer in his chest. Subconsciously, his fingers held his gun all the tighter.

Echo appeared behind him and hissed. It took everything Owen had not to startle at the sound. He couldn't show a single shred of weakness, if he did, they'd kill him.

Charlie and Delta appeared on either side of him. They'd all completely boxed him in.

Of all the ways he'd thought he'd die, being torn apart by his beloved girls was not one of them. At least, not one that he wanted to think about.

"So…" he said slowly, always with that firm voice he used with them, to show them he was dominant. "That's how it is, huh?"

The raptors growled at him. Blue stamped her foot like a toddler in the middle of a tantrum.

Owen gripped his gun tighter. Just one shot. It would take down Blue and the others would be too startled to stop him running for the bike. They might get him before he could get away, they might not. But it might be his only chance.

He looked into Blue's golden eyes. Saw the intelligence, the spitfire that she truly was. She'd always been a pain in the ass, always trying to screw him over, to undermine him, to see just how far she could push. But at the same time, she'd been the most quietly affectionate of them all. It was in the little things, the way she'd look at him for approval after a job well done, the way she always fought with her sisters to be stood closer to him, the way she chittered back when he talked nonsense.

He thought about Joanne, about how broken she'd been at the thought of hunting down the Indominus. He'd told her that if it had been his girl's he'd be in the same boat, but he had to think rationally.

Could he do it? This was his girls he was talking about. They snapped their teeth at him, ready to tear out his insides, and all he could think about was his collection of their baby teeth he had stored in his bungalow. Their talons lashed the air, trying to force him to flee, but all he remembered was the way they'd climbed up his pantsleg like kittens once. They crouched, ready to spring, but he still knew where their ticklish spots on their tummies were.

The gun clattered to the ground.

Damn logic. He thought. Damn rational thought, all of it, damn it all to Hell.

"Go ahead," he said, his eyes never leaving Blue's. "Take your best shot."

Blue seemed confused. She chittered, as if questioning what he was doing, as if this wasn't part of the script. She looked at the gun, then back to him. The others were rumbling, chattering amongst each other. By her body language, Owen knew Blue was agitated, she didn't like not knowing what to do.

"Easy… easy…" he whispered softly.

He held up his hand and dared to take a step closer. Blue snapped her jaws in warning. He paused respectively, but after a moment he came forward again. He could hear the others behind him, squawking to each other like birds.

"Steady…"

He reached up. Blue kept herself completely motionless. Never once did Owen break that fragile moment of conflict, not even to blink. He feared that if he did, he'd die. He reached up and slowly flicked open the buckle to the camera set on the side of her head. It fell away and clattered to the floor to join his gun.

Blue cocked her head and clicked her tongue at him.

Owen couldn't help himself. He smiled. "There's my best girl."

* * *

Joanne chose her steps with the utmost care. Darwin only knew where any of those Raptors were. Every lesson the professor had ever learned about the wild screamed through her mind one after another. She checked each of her surroundings, she chose the softest foliage to walk through so as to make little to no noise, she kept her breathing under control. In all likelihood, those predators were hunting her even now, but she'd be damned if she didn't do everything in her power to make them work for it.

How had everything fallen apart so fast? She'd spoken out to White and she'd seemed to respond. But then those trigger-happy morons had spoiled everything. Now there was a huge crater in the forest that was on fire, people were dying all around her and she had no idea where White was. She didn't know if things could get any worse…

A groan came from around the corner. Joanne froze, certain she'd misheard or imagined it. She couldn't afford to let them lure her out into a trap. But then she heard it again, and there was no mistaking the human-like sound and the muttered curse that accompanied it.

Joanne dashed out of the brush and skidded to a halt when she saw what lay before her. Barry was crumpled on the ground, holding his gun, his back against a fallen and rotting tree. He was out of breath and there was a small cut on his brow that was oozing blood down his face. She rushed towards him and fell on her knees beside him.

"Barry!" She reached out tentatively for to his forehead. When he flinched at the slightest touch, she retracted her hand. "Shit… what happened?"

He growled something in French before he spoke a little louder for her in English. "Mercenary threw me aside to get to the jeep. Caught my head on a rock."

"Are you okay? Are you dizzy, uh, nauseous?" Joanne asked nervously. First aid on humans had never been one of her strong suits.

"I'm good, I just need a minute…"

"Are you sure? I could–"

"Joey." Barry said sharply, he clamped his hand onto hers, his eyes firm yet his expression was gentle. "I'll be fine. Relax."

"Okay…" she murmured. With nothing better to do, she stood and began to pace, the nerves making her feel caged again. "How're we gonna get back without a car?"

"I think my radio still works. I'll try and get through to Control Room."

She nodded.

Barry reached for the radio at his belt and pulled it up to his mouth. "Larry? You still there?"

"You know someone from control?" Joanne asked.

"We play board games on Thursdays."

"I didn't know you were into board games."

"I'm not. Larry just suggests it so that he can beat me like I always beat him at poker." He grimaced and turned back to the radio. "Larry?"

The radio crackled and then a voice suddenly burst through the static. _"_ _Barry, that you? Thought all of you were gonners!"_

"No. Me and Professor Teerly are still here. We need pick up right away."

 _"_ _Alright. Sit tight, we'll try and get someone out to you as soon as possible."_

Joanne was about to say something else, when she suddenly heard a whine on the breeze. Her spine stiffened and she spun. She waited. Out there in the darkness, she waited for the breeze to hit her again, and with it, the unquestionable sound of a frightened animal.

Her feet were moving before she even knew what was happening.

"Joanne?" she heard Barry call but ignored it. "Joanne!"

She parted the vines and the ferns, ducked under low hanging branches. The jungle pressed in thick around her, her eyes strained to see in the night. But she pressed on. A twig snapped under her boot but she carried on. The scent of burned wood made its way to her nose, and she knew she was near the site of where the RPG had gone off.

Ever so slowly, hand splayed along the rough bark of the trunk that bit into her fingers, she rounded the corner. Her feet stopped dead in their tracks. Her breath caught in her throat. Her heartbeat stopped.

Bushes and undergrowth had been torn up and trampled, a tree had been overturned and uprooted. Where it now leaned, and animal rested against it. The Indominus lay on her side, hind legs and tail flopped onto the ground. Periodically they kicked out or twitched like caught nerves. Her sides heaved with irregular breathes, ribs jumping up and down with no set rhythm, like a child that had lost all ability to control themselves in the midst of sobbing. Her neck was convulsing and the veins throbbed with the clear beat of her pounding heart. Her jaws were slightly open, froth edged the corners of her mouth where her saliva gathered. Her nostrils were flared, desperate to take in air like a drowning man. Her eyes were open but unseeing. She was no longer in the present, her mind gone elsewhere.

The trauma, the isolation, the hunt, the exhaustion, the confrontation, the explosion, it had all gotten to her. She'd broken.

And Joanne's heart shattered into a thousand blood-stained fragments.

A sob burst out of her throat as she fell next to her big baby. Her shoulders heaved and tears were suffocating her face. A torn, anguished cry erupted out of her mouth, the wail of a mother who has seen the worst come to pass upon her beloved child.

Her hands shook as she reached out and touched those familiar white scales. Little White's only response was an ever so slight shift and a whine that briefly changed pitch. Other than that, she was oblivious. Joanne lost the will to stand and fell to her knees as another sob burst from her chest. She pressed her wet face against the dinosaur's her hand absentmindedly stroking along the large cheek. Like it would all be okay. Though who she was trying to convince, White or herself, she didn't know.

She felt a hand on her shoulder, and knew Barry was there. But she didn't care. Nothing mattered anymore. Her baby lay broken, and Joanne just wanted to be there with her, to grieve for her. She'd wanted so badly to avoid this, and she'd failed.

And for the first time, Joanne didn't know how she was going to fix this.


	6. Chapter 6

Hoskins ordered his boys to hurriedly pack everything up. He cursed repeatedly in his head. How had everything turned into such a shit-fest so quickly? First the Indominus had gone completely off the wall, then it had fucked his day up more when it had completely shat all over his raptor-squad idea. The only thing good that had come out of this, was that the board was at least impressed with the Indominus' abilities in combat situations. So, it turned out the prototype had worked after all.

That now meant that he had to get all the gear, data, and everything related to Wu's research and haul it off the island before the authorities could get their hands on it. He'd been unable to find the scientist himself, but Hoskins was sure he'd come crawling back as soon as the smoke cleared. That weasel always followed the money.

With the Indominus now captured – from what he'd heard over the radio channels – ACU and mainland authorities were sweeping in to contain the rest of the animals and evacuate all the guests and staff. In the midst of the chaos, Hoskins window was perfect but short to get his stuff and go.

"Come on, people!" he yelled to the last of his boys as they all finally filtered out of the room. "Let's move it out!"

He paused before following them, alone in the lab. He turned back to look at one of Wu's computers. The image of the Indominus was branded right on the screen, with all the lists of specific requirements and genetic code fragments needed for the perfect result. The one on the screen was not anything like the one now locked up. There had been a few tweaks made. Less dependability, slightly reduced intelligence so as not to have the side-effects of mental instability, and most importantly, a fraction of the size – perfect for getting up close and personal.

"Hold on tight, baby," he murmured to the screen, an excited grin plastered across his face. "Here we come."

He turned around, and was startled to see that he was not alone.

A woman, dirty, clothes torn, her gold-brown hair a mess, stood in the doorway. Her eyes had dark circles, her cheeks were burned red with tracks of tears. A light flickered above her, making her skin turn pasty and pale. Oddly enough, a stool from the labs was in her hand.

Despite the fact that she looked a state, Hoskins recognised her from the vids in the control room, as well as the reports he'd seen. "Miss Teerly? Wha–"

Joanne roared and swung the stool upwards. It smashed across Hoskin's face and a shower of blood sprayed into the air from a shattered nose, dislocated jaw and flying teeth. The fat man dropped to the ground, barely conscious as he moaned and gurgled in a growing pool of his own blood. Joanne stood coldly above him, her sneer almost sadistic in nature as she watched him suffer. Carelessly she dropped the stool onto the ground with a gunshot-loud _'_ _BANG_ '.

She spat. "Burn in hell."

And with that, she turned around and walked out of the room.

* * *

 _Two Weeks Later…_

The news anchor shuffled her papers, dark blue blouse and pristine white shirt pressed into perfect place to make her brown hair and eyes stand out. Beside her sat a middle aged man, his skin worn and weathered and now slightly wrinkled with age. He wore denim jeans and a jacket, and his face was rather grave as he awaited to be spoken to.

The anchor-woman smiled into the camera to greet her viewers. "Hello, good morning. Today, our top story: Jurassic World is closing. Yes, after ten highly successful years of open gates, the ground breaking, world recording holding theme park/zoo is going extinct for good. This comes just fourteen days after the accident in the park which caused animals to break loose, resulting in several human deaths. Joining me today is palaeontologist Dr Alan Grant, a survivor of the previous Jurassic Park tragedy." She gestured to the man beside her and all cameras focused on him. She swivelled in her chair to face him properly. "Dr Grant, what are your thoughts on this recent development?"

"Well," Dr Grant cleared his throat and shifted in his seat to sit a little straighter. "In all honesty, I say it's about time. I was against the original park after everything that happened. Dinosaurs and humans have been separated by millions of years of evolution, how could we possibly know what to expect from them? And here we were shown again, that where these animals are concerned, no matter how much control we exert – as a friend of mine once said – life finds a way."

"Yes, you survived both the original tragedy on Isla Nublar and then ten years after that when you were kidnapped to Isla Sorna–"

Dr Grant winced. " _Kidnapped_ is a bit of a strong word, but… yeah."

"Considering the cost to human life these animals are causing, there are many who are calling for them all to be exterminated. What are your thoughts on that?"

"Well, who has the right to do that?"

"Several lawyers and critics say that these animals were created in test tubes. You yourself have said how they are so changed from their fossil ancestors, that they are more, quote: 'theme-park monsters then actual dinosaurs'. Tell me, if these creatures aren't natural, why shouldn't they be rounded up and humanely terminated for the safety of humanity?"

"Because, you see," Grant leaned forward, his words inflected with his passion and slight agitation. "Right there lies the problem. All of this death, all of this destruction, it was all caused because of man's inability to show humility and respect. These animals were taken advantage of, put through insanely cruel circumstances into a world they can't understand anymore. I believe that the specimen in the park that started this whole mess, was mentally unstable due to her poor treatment – I noticed you didn't tell your viewers that."

"Back on point, Dr Grant?" The anchor-woman snapped, her eyes flashed in warning.

"Sure. The point is: when humans have tried to take these animals for granted, to do what we want with them, it's always ended in disaster. Ingen would claim that these animals were made, painted, packaged and produced by them, so therefore they own them. But then you have to look at where that's gotten them. Jurassic Park, San Diego, Isla Sorna, now Jurassic World. It will never end unless we change the loop."

"And how do you propose we do that?"

"We already took a step in the right direction when we made Isla Sorna a protected sanctuary for the animals on the Site B. With Jurassic World closing, I can only assume and hope that the same is happening over at Isla Nublar. But the crucial step we need to take is to give these animals back their rights."

"You want to give extinct animals rights?"

Alan Grant nodded severely. "I want to give these animals the proper respect, dignity and freedom that they deserve. Only when we do that, when we can coexist safely on this planet without having to dominate or interfere with each other, only then will we no longer be hearing stories of men getting eaten by dinosaurs."

"Well thank you for joining me, Dr Grant." The news-woman nodded her gratitude to him and returned her eyes to the camera in front of her. "And you as well. If you want to hear more news on this story as it develops, then please stay tuned."

* * *

White was placed back in a temporary holding paddock, where most of the animals were kept for a maximum of a few hours for vet check-ups. It was barely big enough for her to take a few steps to walk around. Not that she took the opportunity to do so. The Indominus had hardly moved since she'd been placed there, the only time she even shifted was when she needed to relieve her bodily functions, and sometimes not even then.

Her scales were cracked, scabbed and flaking. Her ribs and hips poked through her skin where she refused to eat. They only kept her living through a constant I.V that fed her water. Fresh food was given to her every day, but she never touched it. She just sat on the concrete floor and stared aimlessly at the wall.

It broke Joanne's heart. She'd been down here every day, even slept over in the bunker, to try and stimulate her broken baby back from the brink. But in two weeks of work, she'd had little luck. White only responded to the simplest touches or noises, and even then it was only with a tiny noise or movement of her own. It was as if she was deaf, dumb and blind, and only moved towards warmth because she could feel it.

But the professor wouldn't give up. The possibility was just not an option. One of the walls had a large square hole lined with thick titanium bars so that vets could reach inside. Joanne sat on the ledge and reached her arm into the cell to softly stroke her hand down the side of White's neck. The Indominus' spines quivered, but otherwise she didn't move.

"Hey, baby. How're we doing today?" Joanne asked in a quiet and soothing voice. She reached in and held out a slab of meat, one side coated in a sticky brown substance. "Are you going to eat for me? I remember how much you loved peanut butter. I brought some especially for you."

There was no response. The dinosaur's eyes were wide open, but unseeing. Her nostrils twitched at the familiar scent but she didn't react. It was as if the lights were on but nobody was home. Joanne slumped. She shifted a little and reached further into the cell and placed her hand more firmly on White's cheek.

"Little White… can you feel that?" Joanne tried to swallow the lump in her throat. The Indominus hummed, but it sounded a little uneasy. "I'm right here, baby. I'm here. Just give me a sign, come back to me. _Please_."

Nothing. Joanne bit her lip to hold back hopeless tears.

"Joey?" she heard Barry call from the door behind her. "Can you come out here for a second?"

She nodded without taking her eyes off White. She smiled to her dinosaur, and petted the scaly cheek. "I'll be back soon, baby. Okay?"

Reluctantly, she scooted off the sill and made her way into the other room. It felt like a reception area, complete with a desk, computer and phone. Barry sat on one of the chairs that lined the wall. He offered the seat beside him, and Joanne practically collapsed onto it. She couldn't remember the last time she'd had a proper night's sleep.

"It's still not working?" the black French man asked her softly.

"What do you think?" she snapped. Immediately she regretted it, but couldn't stop the angry tears that threatened to blind her. "It's been two weeks, Barry. Her mind completely collapsed out there. She won't eat, she won't sleep. No matter what I try, it's like she's–!"

"Hey, hey, shhhh…" he whispered and held her shoulders in his large hands. "I'm here, Joey, I'm here."

He pulled her against him, and Joanne folded into his embrace. She cried against his chest. Just released all the rage, the grief, the despair that she contained. The professor once prided herself that she never cried like the stick-thin plastic dolls from the movies, but lately, it seemed like all she ever did was cry.

The door cluttered open and a figure popped into the room. "I'm sorry to disturb you–"

Joanne pushed herself up and glared. "What do _you_ want? Come to gloat?"

Claire didn't look good. She had circles under her eyes, and her pale skin looked waxy and unhealthy. Her white, pristine clothes were gone, and in their place was more of a practical outfit that was an odd shade of black. As if she were in mourning.

She looked down at the folder she cradled in the crook of her arm, unable to meet Joanne's eyes. "Professor, I know that you have every right to be angry with me."

"No!" Joanne shouted. She wanted to punch Claire in her pretty little face, but Barry held onto her wrist. "You have no idea how angry I am with you! This is all your fault! If you had just listened to me back when this all started, my girl wouldn't be suffering right now."

"I see that now," Claire tried to say. "Trust me, Joanne, I've… had a change of perspective. Mr Grady and I found the Apatosaurs. They weren't just numbers on a spread sheet."

"Am I supposed to cheer for your change of heart?"

"No. I've come to give you some news. The board of directors only informed me this morning."

Joanne went silent. It was today? So soon? Her numbness made her unable to respond, so Barry spoke up for her. "What did they say?"

Claire sighed. "Due to the catastrophic damages, the compensation we now have to pay out to the families of dead guests and employees, as well as the public completely turning on us; the board had decided to close Jurassic World. For good."

"What does that mean for the animals?" Joanne asked thickly.

"They've managed to salvage this with the local government by declaring that Isla Nublar will become a protected haven for the animals. It will keep both sides safe as well as maybe turn the public's opinion back in our favour."

The tension in the room grew, and Joanne felt her stomach drop with fear. "There's something else, isn't there?"

"There is." Once again Claire wouldn't meet her eyes.

"What?"

"The Indominus–"

"White."

"I'm sorry?"

"After everything you've done to her, she deserves for you to give her the respect of saying her name."

Claire wet her lips, nervous, but nodded. "White caused a lot of damage. She killed a lot of people. Or at least, her actions were the cause of it. She's a danger to human life. The government's one non-negotiable condition–"

"No."

"They gave us no choice." Claire looked pained.

Joanne shook her head, tears streaked down her face. "You can't!"

"Before our staff completely abandons the park, the Indominus… Little White… must be euthanized."

"NO!" Joanne howled. Her knees buckled underneath her, and she would have crashed to the ground if Barry hadn't caught her. He held her in his arms and rocked her back and forth as the woman vented her utter misery.

"The date's already set," Claire murmured and tried to hide the way her eyes glistened. "Our vets will be here tomorrow morning… I'm sorry, Joanne."

And with that, she left the two on the floor. The business woman swore that no matter what she did next with her life, she would never again do anything that would cause someone the sorrow that she could hear in Joanne's screams.

* * *

"Okay girls, time to hit the road."

Owen tried to keep his voice upbeat and positive. But it was difficult. It was like watching a toddler wander off to kindergarten for the first time. His girls were being released, going into the world for the first time, to never see him again. It broke his heart.

He climbed up onto the top of the large truck. He could hear his girls shrieking and bickering inside. They were desperate to get out. He knew they could see and smell their new environment through the grating on the door. He'd stopped at the edge of a large meadow, picturesque with how peaceful and tranquil it looked.

"Look at that," he said more to fill the silence then to actually talk to the girls. "Plenty of room to run around – which will be great for you Echo. Charlie, you'll love the pond just over that ridge, it's got all the bubbles you can ever want. Delta, I even know there's still a rat population lurking somewhere here. Maybe you can fix that, yeah?"

The truck shuddered as the girls bounced around inside, he could hear them excitedly chattering to one another. Melancholy filled his heart as he reached down and pressed his fingers against the grating.

"And you, Blue… I know you'll be making mischief everywhere you go."

He heard a growling purr and felt a warm, moist puff of air against his fingertips. He closed his eyes and dipped his head. Damn it, he was a military man. His father had been old fashioned and taught him not to cry for anything. But in that moment, it was really hard.

To distract himself, he quickly straightened and got the controls all ready for him to work the magic. "Now remember to steer clear of Rexy. The old Queen's still got a lot of life left in her. Knowing my luck that old girl will never die. You do what she says and keep your heads down. But then, you'll probably prove what an ass I am and go be best buds, right?"

" _Owen. You ready to do this?"_

The walkie-talkie blurted a bunch of static at him, and he snatched it up to answer. "We're ready, Lowry."

He watched the panel. It all hinged on this moment. All he had to go was wait for the green light to appear, the signal that Lowry had given the clearance for the equipment so that he could push the dreaded button. It all hinged on this. The light flickered to green, and he hit the red button.

The truck door rolled upwards, and the raptors bolted out of it and into the bright sunshine. They cawed to each other in surprise and stopped. They circled for a moment, confused at the sudden change of scenery.

Blue was the one who spotted him first. Her nostrils twitched and her head snapped up to look at him. She gave a piercing cry and all the others followed her line of sight to look up at him. They reminded Own of kittens following a piece of string from all those videos on YouTube.

He made a shooing motion with his hand. "Go on then, girls. Time to go."

They didn't move. In fact, Blue got a little impatient. She snarled and snapped her jaws, as if yelling at him for making them wait for him to come down and join them.

"Hey, Blue! Don't give me any of that shit." He snapped. The raptor looked at him, and cocked her head. Her golden eyes were bottomless and brilliant. It made him smile. "There's my best girl."

With his whispered, sad words, it was as if they understood. Slowly, one by one, the raptors reluctantly walked off further into the meadow. Blue was the last to leave. She looked up at Owen one last time, as if waiting for him to join her. He shook his head. She looked at the floor, and gave one, high-pitched, mournful keen and then jogged away to re-join her sisters.

Owen watched them go until he could see them no more. "Till next time."

* * *

Her leg refused to stop bouncing. Her eyes stared aimlessly into the distance. It was as if she were a perfect replica of the dinosaur in the other room. Joanne felt she had to be. If she didn't, she feared the damn that held her emotions at bay would break and everything inside her would come rushing out and destroy her.

Barry was beside her, his hand on her knee. She hadn't even realised he'd come into the room. "Are you sure you want to do this?"

"No." she whispered. Finally, she broke her stare with the wall and looked over at him. "But I won't let her do this alone. I was there when she came into the world. I ought to be there when she…"

"Hey… if you want, I can come in with you."

"Thanks. But, I think I need to be alone right now."

"I'll be just outside."

She nodded and closed her eyes. Everything was so messed up. She wasn't ready for this.

A door opened and a middle aged man dressed in white scrubs stepped with one foot on each side of the doorway. "We're ready for you now."

Joanne didn't know if her legs would support her as she stumbled into the other room. The holding cell had been transformed into a make-shift vet's surgery. White lay sprawled across the floor, various machines and I.V's hooked up to her. She was pretty much out of it, her pupils wide from drugs that helped to keep her unresponsive. The beep of a machine played the rhythm of her heart, and Joanne didn't even realise that she walked in time with it.

She'd made a deal with the vets to be here, so the group of four doctors gave her the space she needed for privacy. Her nod of thanks was the only acknowledgment she gave them. All too soon she was stood beside White's head and knelt down so that she could gaze into one of her gorgeous red-gold eyes. The eye shifted to regard her and the quietest hum escaped the dinosaur to acknowledge her carer.

"Hey. There's my big baby." Joanne smiled to hide the tears that stung the back of her eyes. She reached up and stroked the scaly cheek. "Sorry, White. I know how much you hated doctors. But this will be the last time… I promise."

She looked away. It was suddenly so hard to speak. The lump made her want to be sick, a cough lingered at the back of her throat every time she tried to draw breath. She took several steadying breaths. It was all an elaborate attempt to regain some control. But what could she do? Everything reminded her of the heart-breaking reason she was here. And in the face of that, she felt the guilt swarm her for what was about to happen to her precious Little White.

"I'm sorry." She whispered and bit her lip. "I'm so sorry baby. I'm sorry I wasn't there for you. I'm sorry I had to leave you in the first place. You've had such a shitty life, all because of my mistakes. If I could do anything to make it right… I'd give up a thousand and one things if I thought I could…"

She trailed off. The tears overflowed from her eyes, no matter how many times she tried to blink them away. Angrily she wiped them clean of her face. She refused to make White scared or upset just because she couldn't have a little self control.

"But I'm here now. And I promise, I'll stay right until the very end. I'm not leaving you again."

She smiled for the dinosaur and pressed herself against the cheek in a form of embrace. A purr rumbled around her, and she scrunched up her face to keep her emotions at bay. Her touch lingered for a long while, unable to let go. As if, if she did, then it would be time.

"Professor?" said a quiet voice. "We're ready."

"Okay." She nodded and drew back. Her fingers stroked over the scales absentmindedly. She tried to smile even as tears spilled down her face. "It's okay, White. You're just… you're just going to go on a little trip now. And when you wake up, you'll be in the best place possible. You'll be warm, and there'll be plenty of room to run around. And all the puzzles in the world for you to solve. I know how much you loved to show off how smart you are."

The doctors had their vials in hand and began to link them to the main I.V's that led into White's precious life-giving veins. Joanne felt panic engulf her. She wasn't ready to say goodbye.

"Shall I sing to you? You always liked my songs to go to sleep – Darwin knows nobody else did."

Her chuckle was sad. But Little White cooed sleepily. Joanne bit her lip as memories of a tiny, adorable little therapod swam up from the abyss. A little creature that snuggled into her arms, enjoying every moment of her favourite lullaby. It was a song Joanne's grandmother had sung to her when she was small. She didn't know the whole song, just the last two verses. But Little White had still loved it.

So now, she reached out, stroked the snow-white cheek and sang even as her voice croaked and shook and tears and snot made her mouth stumble over the words.

 _"Aww, take good care of my ba-a-a-by_  
 _Now don't you ever make her cry-y-y-y_  
 _Just let your love surround her_  
 _Paint a rainbow all around her_  
 _Don't let her see a cloudy sky..."_

The vials were compressed and the liquid inside disappeared into the tubes. Little White gave a small shudder. For a moment, her eyes looked to Joanne with perfect clarity, and there was a fear and sadness in them, for a life ill-spent, for opportunities lost.

Joanne didn't want her to think that. So, she smiled, and made her think of a simpler time. Of a time filled with love and family and beauty. She gazed into that red gold eye, and refused to break that gaze, not even to blink as she sang.

 _"So, take good care of my ba-a-a-by_  
 _Be just as kind as you can be-e-e-e_  
 _And if you should discover_  
 _That you don't really love her_  
 _Just send my baby back home to me"_

Little White hummed, a smile played at the edge of her scaly lips. And with a look of content, she closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep…

 _~THE END~_

* * *

 **Author's Note: Yes. We have finally reached the end. I'm sorry it's taken us so long. But I hope you have enjoyed this short story, regardless.**

 **In truth, this is how I've always seen this story ending. A very sad, tearful ending. I don't know about you guys, but I'm crying just writing this, and I knew it was coming! This for me, was always to show how I find the Indominus to be such a tragic character, and I wish Jurassic World writers had been more daring to tell her story and take her theme to its full potential. But as it is, I can give you this.**

 **I want to say a huge thank you to everyone who has been following, reviewing, and sending me their thoughts. You guys make my world what it is, and you make my writing what it is. And I thank you for it with all my heart.**

 **Forever Yours,**

 **Donovan94 x**


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